The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has inaugurated the LearnFest Lecture Series, a continuous learning platform designed to strengthen the capacity of its staff and oil and gas industry stakeholders to effectively understand and implement Nigerian Content policies and processes.

The initiative, launched on Thursday at the Board’s corporate headquarters in Yenagoa, is being implemented under the Nigerian Content Academy (NCA), the specialised knowledge-sharing and training arm of the agency.

The three-hour inaugural session, attended by staff at the headquarters, focused on improving understanding of the Board’s seven directorates, their constituent divisions and departments, and their respective responsibilities and relationships in advancing the organisation’s corporate goals and objectives.

In a promotional video, the Academy explained that knowledge within the NCDMB is distributed across its seven directorates, each with its own mandate, processes, expertise, responsibilities and mechanisms for creating value.

It stressed that institutional knowledge becomes more effective when it is not confined to departmental silos but moves across units through collaboration.

According to the Academy, LearnFest is intended to help staff understand “how everything fits together” by providing a broader perspective of the Board’s mandate, institutional processes, practices, culture and relationships.

“When we understand what others do, we collaborate better, support one another better, and work as one integrated ecosystem,” it added.

Opening the event, the Director, Capacity Building Directorate, Engr. Abayomi Bamidele, said the Lecture Series was conceived to deepen understanding of Nigerian Content tools and processes among NCDMB staff and other oil and gas industry stakeholders.

Bamidele said industry operators and other stakeholders needed to understand and correctly interpret the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010, as well as operational principles contained in the NCDMB Guideline for Nigerian Content Human Capital Development Implementation Strategy.

He also identified the Nigerian Content Compliance Certificate (NCCC), Nigerian Content Plan (NCP), statutory reporting requirements and issues relating to expatriate quotas as areas requiring greater understanding.

LearnFest, he said, “will make our work easier.”

The director disclosed that industry operators and service companies, industry associations including the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN), academic institutions, and ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) had been expressing interest in sending their personnel to the Academy for specialised training.

Bamidele further disclosed that the NCA was developing a faculty, describing the Lecture Series as part of the groundwork for the faculty’s eventual take-off.

“The people presenting [the lectures] could form part of our faculty,” he said, adding that participants in the LearnFest sessions would provide feedback on the suitability of the resource persons for faculty roles.

He also announced that NCDMB management had approved the Board’s purpose-built facility at Opolo, along the Opolo-Elebele Road in Yenagoa, as a centre for NCA training programmes.

The inaugural presentation was delivered by the Manager, Planning and Policy Development Department, Engr. Mofe Megbele, on “Understanding the Activities and Processes of the Planning, Research and Statistics Directorate.”

The presentation covered the Directorate’s operating framework, the Planning and Policy Development Department (PPD), expatriate quota, inter-directorate and division relations, research and development programmes, technology commercialisation and innovation, R&D infrastructure, NOGIC JQS and user communication, Nigerian Content Consultative Forum (NCCF) objectives, e-Marketplace and stakeholder engagement.

Megbele said 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 explained that the PPD was established in September 2018 under 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 will run monthly for the next nine months, with each edition focusing on a specific NCDMB directorate.

Attendance, either online or in person, is mandatory for all NCDMB staff, while other oil and gas industry stakeholders will be able to participate in subsequent editions.