NCDMB Launches LearnFest Academy For Staff, Industry Stakeholders
By Jonah Fubara, YENAGOA – The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has inaugurated the LearnFest Lecture Series, an in-house knowledge-sharing platform designed to strengthen staff capacity and deepen understanding of the agency’s mandate among oil and gas industry stakeholders.
The initiative, inaugurated on Thursday at the NCDMB corporate headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, is being implemented under the Nigerian Content Academy (NCA), the Board’s specialised knowledge-sharing and training arm.
The three-hour inaugural session, attended by staff across the organisation, focused on creating awareness of the various directorates, divisions and departments of the Board, their responsibilities and how they work individually and collectively to achieve its corporate objectives.
According to the Academy, NCDMB’s institutional knowledge is distributed across seven directorates, each with its own mandate, processes, expertise and responsibilities.
It explained that the essence of LearnFest was to break knowledge silos and promote stronger collaboration across departments.
“When we understand what others do, we collaborate better, support one another better, and work as one integrated ecosystem,” the Academy stated, adding that the initiative would help staff understand “how everything fits together” within the Board’s mandate, institutional processes, practices, culture and relationships.
Speaking at the event, the Director, Capacity Building Directorate, Engr. Abayomi Bamidele, said the Lecture Series was introduced to deepen staff and stakeholders’ understanding of Nigerian Content tools, processes and regulatory requirements.
He said industry players needed to properly understand and interpret the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act 2010, the operational principles contained in the NCDMB Guideline for Nigerian Content Human Capital Development Implementation Strategy, as well as requirements relating to the Nigerian Content Compliance Certificate (NCCC), Nigerian Content Plan (NCP), statutory reporting and expatriate quota.
LearnFest, he said, “will make our work easier.”
Bamidele disclosed that industry operators and service companies, industry associations such as the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN), academic institutions, as well as ministries, departments and agencies, had expressed interest in sending their personnel to the Nigerian Content Academy for specialised training.
He said the NCA was also developing a faculty, adding that the Lecture Series would help identify and prepare potential resource persons.
“The people presenting [the lectures] could form part of our faculty,” he said, urging participants to provide feedback on the suitability of the presenters for future faculty roles.
Bamidele further disclosed that NCDMB management had approved the use of the Board’s purpose-built facility in Opolo, along the Opolo-Elebele Road in Yenagoa, as a training centre for the Nigerian Content Academy.
The inaugural lecture was delivered by the Manager, Planning and Policy Development Department, Engr. Mofe Megbele, who spoke on “Understanding the Activities and Processes of the Planning, Research and Statistics Directorate.”
The presentation covered the operating framework for Planning, Research and Statistics; the Planning and Policy Development Department; expatriate quota; inter-directorate and division relations; research and development programmes; technology commercialisation and innovation; R&D infrastructure; NOGIC JQS and user communication; NCCF objectives; as well as the e-Marketplace and stakeholder engagement.
Megbele explained that the directorate comprised two major divisions: the Planning and Policy Development Division and the Research and Statistics Development Division, both headed by general managers.
He said the Planning and Policy Development Department was established in September 2018 pursuant to Section 70 of the NOGICD Act and is responsible for developing policies and guidelines for internal and external stakeholders, as well as monitoring their implementation.
The LearnFest Lecture Series is scheduled to hold monthly over the next nine months, with each edition focusing on a different directorate.
Attendance, both physical and online, is mandatory for NCDMB staff, while other oil and gas industry stakeholders will be able to participate in subsequent editions.
