INVESTMENTS requiring huge capital often elude Nigerian businesses due mainly to the unfriendly banking environment that promotes high lending rates. It is believed that this is why many big businesses, especially in oil and gas, are partly owned by foreigners, a situation, which, however, encourages capital flight.

But in 2010, the National Assembly passed the Nigerian Content Act, which gives Nigerians the sole right to participate in specified aspects of oil and gas business, thereby encouraging growth of entrepreneurship in that sector.

‘Exploiting’ the provisions of this Act, some young entrepreneurs under the aegis of TECHNOVA, a 100 per cent Africa-owned Energy Company in offshore, onshore and subsea engineering, in 2013 initiated the construction of line pipe mill and coating facility in Ologbo in Edo State. According to them, the park was a vehicle for actualising government-mandated Nigerian content requirements.

Last week, the leadership of the National Assembly and other stakeholders had an official tour of the facility to inspect the extent of work done and what needed to be improved.

Leading the delegation was the House of Representatives’ chairman of the Commmittee on Nigerian Content, Asita Honourable, who tasked the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to ensure the implementation of the Act which guarantees support for wholly indigenous companies ready to invest in ancillary services to the oil and gas industry in the country.

Rather than continue to award contracts to foreigners, Honourable urged the board to support companies run by Nigerians, adding that the Board, since its inception in 2010, has saved over $450 million deductions from exploration/exploitation activities of oil companies in Nigeria.

He said the board could use such funds to support companies that brave odds to go into building industrial parks without loans from banks. “The executive secretary and I conducted the ground-breaking ceremony in this place; so, I want a situation between now and the end of this year, your next proposal to the parliament should include what interventions we can give to TECHNOVA. If it means taking off some shares of TECHNOVA until they refund the money, we will force them to sign such document. But government must intervene; otherwise there is no need for the Fund. We intervene, put money here and use this place as training ground for young people so that, with the funds that will be put in, TECHOVA can build this place. We have just put money in banks where friends manage the fund using it to make profits and giving loans to people, even as the businesses for which the fund is created is suffer.”

He said one of the objectives of the Nigerian Content Act was to encourage businesses like TECNOVA. “I understand that through the one per cent deduction made to the fund from all upstream contracts, the Fund has been able to generate well over $450 million. I understand that part of the intervention that board makes is to encourage training of Nigerians in different aspects of Industry practice. I would, therefore, be happy if the Board will initiate partnerships with entities like TECHNOVA to fund certain aspects of this project that will enable the board use this facility to train young Nigerians.”

The lawmaker disclosed that the last discussion he had with the Board ended in TECHNOVA getting a partial guarantee to secure a facility. “No bank will give you loan to do a thing like this when you don’t have a purchase order. So, that partial guarantee has ended up like a mere piece of paper. I want to challenge the Board because we created that Board for things like this and I am happy that a very high officer of the board is here. One of the reasons why we created that Fund is to encourage businesses like this.’



The honourable also called on oil companies, many of which were represented at the event, to give contracts to the company to enable it make enough profit could be ploughed back into the facility. “They are building this company because we have oil and gas companies in Nigerian that require pipes. If you don’t encourage them, it will mean this is a wrong decision, and I am sure this is the right decision. But it shouldn’t end at clapping for them; they don’t desire our clapping, they desire our action.”

The oversight visit involved the inspection of the construction phase of the line pipe mill and coating facility, residential, recreational and medical facilities. Also inspected were the new 15-metre wide access road and the perimeter fencing.

The 200,000 MTPA Pipe Mill and Coating Facility being constructed by the company is expected to create over 3,500 direct and indirect employment, with about 30 spin-off businesses.

The project on completion is expected to create over 18,000 direct and indirect jobs. The Park is strategically situated within a gas-producing hub in Ologbo and covers approximately 200 acres of land, with more than 100 metres of waterfront for a privately owned captive Jetty to support activities at the Park.



The Industrial Park, to be developed in phases, will be powered by a 10-Megawatts (MW) Power Plant the output of which would subsequently be ramped up to 20MW as demand grows. TECHNOVA says the initial phases of the park construction would be built around provision of services to major oil and gas projects from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and all other international Oil Companies (IOCs) in Nigeria.

Chief Executive Officer of the company, Nobert Oleah, told The Guardian that he and other promoters of the company were inspired after attending a conference in the United Kingdom. “They mentioned a few things about possibilities and incentives created by the new Nigerian Content Act. We then asked ourselves questions: ‘If this is possible (and we are an engineering company), why are our people not there’? We even had doubts, but, when we ventured in there, we found out that nobody was in that space.

n the whole project.”

Hinting that the company bought 150 hectres of land, Oleah said: “We are going to launch our Benin Steel City in a few months.”

We are going to warehouse the different levels of steel, from raw material to production. We are going to integrate the production of raw materials here. When we start, we shall be importing raw materials, but we are surely going to integrate, because we have iron ore and steel here. We are going to have spoon factory, fabrication yard, and we are going to have other steels, like flat sheet and coils for Automobile and shipping industries. Nigerians need to understand what all of these mean for us.”

Oleah stressed that his company’s relationship with the host community had been very cordial, adding that the indigenes and their leaders had been very supportive of its operations.

“…In fact, in some places, when you want to construct something like this, you are asked to pay, but we have not paid a dime. They (the indigenes) are building hotels and restaurants around here, and that tells you the kind of welcome we have received. Their heart goes out to us; so, we are making progress.”

On expected quality of products from the facility when it becomes operational, he said “we are partnering with shell officially; the whole IOCs as you can see are all our partners. What that means is that they are stakeholders; they must ensure, through their technical departments, that what we produce is API standard. They are going to be part of the process and we are insisting on their involvement to ensure off-take.”