Nigeria’s local content policy on Tuesday re¬ceived a major boost with the launch of a financial scheme amounting to $8.6 billion by ExxonMobil Nigeria, aimed at increasing the capacity of indigenous contractors in the oil and gas industry.
The ExxonMobil Nigeria Contractor Finance Scheme, which is a partnership be¬tween the oil major and 12 leading Nigeria banks, seeks to support Nigeria’s national content aspirations by provid¬ing ExxonMobil contractors better funding options to fulfill contracts awarded to them.
The initiative, which was launched on Tuesday in La¬gos, will enable contractors to avail themselves of the sum of $8.6 billion available under the scheme.
The banks involved in the scheme include First¬Bank, Stanbic IBTC, GTBank, Ecobank, Zenith, Access, Citibank, Standard Char¬tered, UBA, Union bank, FCMB and Fidelity.
Mark Ward, chairman and managing director, Exx¬onMobil Upstream affiliates in Nigeria, speaking at the com¬missioning ceremony for the scheme, said, “Partnering with 12 leading Nigerian banks, it is our expectation that with the $8.6 billion available under the scheme, ExxonMobil contrac¬tors nationwide would be able to access better and quicker funding options to enable them execute their contracts speedily. The cooperation of the banks has proved invalu¬able to the successful rollout of this scheme.”
He said the scheme un¬derscored one of the three key elements of ExxonMo¬bil’s national content pro¬gramme which seeks to develop local suppliers to form a competitive base.
“Since the scheme was introduced in November 2013 at least 24 contractors have been able to access funds under the scheme and we continue to encour¬age more contractors to sign up to the programme. They are ensured easier access to
competitive funding as well as reduced loan processing time which would enhance speedier completion of their contracts while building their capacity,” Ward said.
Ernest Nwapa, executive secretary, Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, who formally flagged off the programme, com¬mended ExxonMobil and the partners for the initiative.
He stressed the need for banks to deepen their fi¬nancing of indigenous man¬ufacturers in the industry and not just the contractors.
Olufemi Odumuboni, team leader, oil and gas prod¬ucts, FirstBank, told Busi¬nessDay that the banks had been supporting manufac-turers and fabricators in the oil and gas industry to enable them manufacture most of their equipment locally.
He said the newly launched scheme would help the national content initiative in the industry, adding that the partner banks had earmarked cer¬tain amount of money to commit to the scheme.¬
