By Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has urged the Nigerian LNG Limited (NLNG) to prudently allocate the $43m from the $4.3bn train-seven project for human capital development projects.
She also advised the firm to ensure compliance with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act.
She made this call during a meeting at the National Assembly with representatives from NLNG, NCDMB, Saipem Contracting Limited, and Daewoo Engineering & Construction, yesterday in Abuja.
The amount, the Senator noted, represented one per cent of the total project value, adding that it was designated for human capacity development and institutional strengthening.
Akpoti-Uduaghan stressed the importance of transparency and effective utilisation of these funds to benefit Nigerians and enhance the country’s human capacity development and institutional strengthening.
She said, “Learning institutions from public primary to tertiary institutions nationwide should benefit from the $25.8m which is 60 per cent of the $43m worth of HCD projects owed Nigerians.
She also emphasised the infrastructure deficit in Nigeria’s primary and secondary schools by UBEC report which has it that about 40,000 classrooms are in deplorable conditions.
“It would do well if NLNG’s HCD schemes can support UBEC in their quest to provide befitting educational facilities,” she advised.
She noted the discrepancies in reported figures for the NLNG Train-7 project and explained that if the project was valued at $6.5 billion, the human capacity framework would allocate $39 million for institutional strengthening.
She added that $13m should be for advanced-level training, and $13 million for auxiliary training, totalling $65m.
According to her, “If the project is worth $10bn, the allocation would be $60m for institutional strengthening and $20m each for training, totalling $100m worth of projects across the country.”
The Kogi Central lawmaker explained that for projects in the oil and gas sector worth over $500m, one per cent of the project value is allocated to human capacity development and institutional strengthening.
The committee is expected to collaborate with NLNG and NCDMB to establish a framework and select public institutions across the country which would benefit from the strategic programme, aimed at enhancing learning institutions’ capacity.
The effective utilisation of the funds will positively impact the country’s human capacity development and institutional strengthening and will help address the issue of out-of-school children and improve learning structures in public institutions.
