Nigeria Sets Up N20B Oil Sector Research Fund

The minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has launched a US$50 million Nigerian Content Research and Development (R&D) fund, this is seen as a breath of fresh air in a country where funding for research has been lacking.

The launching of the fund by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) was also an occasion for the commissioning of the Board’s Technology Incubation and Innovation Center located within the Board’s Tower in Yenogoa, Bayelsa.

The minister said through a representative said the fund would be used to create research centers of excellence, finance research commercialisation, funding support for basic and applied research and endowment of professorial chairs in universities and research institutions in the country.

Nigeria spends only about 0.2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on research and development annually as against developed and some developing countries that spend between 2.5 to 4 percent and between 0.7 and to 1.2 percent of their annual GDP respectively on research and development.

Sylva said that the continued underfunding of research and development in Nigeria has continued to reflect on the country’s overdependence on foreign goods and services.

”This is unsustainable if we are serious about building a national technological capability that will drive economic growth,” he said.

The minister, therefore, urged oil and gas operating and service companies and other members of the private sector to embrace investment in R&D as a key component of their business model in order to complement the NCDMB effort.

While commissioning the Technology Incubation and Innovation Center, Sylva said that the center will provide a formidable platform for the generation, incubation and acceleration of innovative ideas to the world marketplace.

He said innovations start from the creation of ecosystems where ideas can connect and challenged various industry stakeholders and youths to utilize the Center to solidify adaptation of existing solutions and also create new solutions that address major industry challenges in the country.

Sylva reconstituted the Nigerian Content Research and Development Council, NCRDC. The council consists of delegates from three key groups including the Government, Industry and Academia.

The council offers policies that shape the direction of NCDMB’s research interventions with a membership that includes representatives of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, PETAN, Oil Producers Trade Section, OPTS and the Petroleum Contractors Trade Section, PCTS.

Other statutory members include the National Universities Commission, NUC, the National Board for Technology Incubation, NBTI and the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP.

Speaking earlier during his presentation, Simbi Kesiye Wabote, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, noted that research and development are integral to the growth and development of any nation as it plays an important role in opening new chapters of modern life.

Wabote however regretted that African nations accounted for less than 1 percent of what is spent on R&D globally, adding that the continent’s aggregate GDP is only 3 percent of the global GDP.

“There is a nexus between what is spent on research and development and economic prosperity. It is time to start nurturing the growth of our home-grown technology rather than just being a wholesome consumer of other people’s innovation,” he said.

According to Wabote, another reason NCDMB is channeling its efforts on research and development is that it is one of the six parameters which are essential for sustainable local content practice.

Other five parameters for sustainable local content development according to him include an enabling regulatory framework, periodic gap analysis, structured capacity building and fiscal and monetary incentives to attract new investments and keep existing businesses afloat as well as create access to the market to enhance patronage of goods and services generated from established capacities.

He further explained that another reason the Board is promoting research and development in the oil and gas industry is that it is in line with the provisions of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development, NOGICD, Act of 2010.

“The authors of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act of 2010 recognized the importance of Research and Development and included key provisions in the Act. Specifically, Sections 36, 37, 38, and 39, of the NOGICD Act are dedicated to promoting Research and Development,” Wabote said.

He also noted that research and development is a major feature of the Board’s 10-Year Strategic roadmap that seeks to increase the level of Nigerian content in the oil and gas industry to 70 percent by the year 2027.

He said, “The 10-Year Roadmap consists of five pillars and four enablers. The pillar on Technical Capability Development contains initiatives to further drive the delivery of Research and Development in the oil and gas industry.

The enabler on research and statistics cover the initiatives required to conduct research in key areas to generate new evidence to address industry knowledge gaps and operational challenges.”

Wabote said the Board would soon embark on a roadshow to showcase its research and development initiatives to the various stakeholder groups in the country, including universities that represent a key constituency; saying that the Board was set to move fully into the implementation phase of its initiatives to derive better results from the intellect of Nigerians in the academia, research institutions, and technology hubs.