Disregard Concocted Allegations By Desperate Individuals To Tarnish Our Hard-Earned Reputation—NCDMB Tells Media, Members Of The Public

Disregard Concocted Allegations By Desperate Individuals

OpenLife Nigeria reports that the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has urge the media and members of the public to completely disregard concocted allegations by desperate individuals, who are determined to tarnish the hard-earned reputation of the Board.

This is contained in a statement titled “ Recycled Allegations Against NCDMB By Coalition Of Civil Society For Good Governance,” and made available to OpenLife Friday.

The statement signed by the Corporate Communication of NCDMB is reproduced below, unedited

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) wishes to alert the public that a sponsored group, CCSGG, masquerading as a coalition of civil society group for good governance are recycling the same bogus and unfounded allegations that were recently published against the operations of our agency by Sahara Reporters.

While we have dismissed these patently false allegations in a widely circulated press statement on Thursday, February 13, titled “NCDMB OBSERVES THE HIGHEST STANDARDS OF ACCOUNTABILITY, TRANSPARENCY, AND DUE PROCESS IN ITS OPERATIONS”, the purveyors of this evil campaign have gone ahead to recruit unsuspecting journalists across some national media to continue to peddle their lies.

For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to restate that:

1. Neither the Board nor the Executive Secretary spent the amount stated in the headline of the referenced statement.

2. NCDMB organised a Strategic Workshop with Heads of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government that pertain to the oil and gas industry to interrogate and find areas of alignment in the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010, in line with our Nigerian Content 10-Year Strategic Roadmap’s enabler on Stakeholder Collaboration and Engagement. The workshop is held every two years and involves the leadership and senior management of those critical agencies, with a view to ensuring a harmonious policy and regulatory implementation by all agencies and institutions connected with the NOGICD Act implementation.

3. Due process was followed and that all expenditures in relation to this Strategic Workshop and other projects of the Board were made in accordance with approved financial and procurement guidelines.

4. There was no such expenditure of N9.9 billion naira by the Board for consultancy services. It is instructive to note that this figure has moved from N7.7 billion to this new figure within a week by these fake groups masquerading as civil society groups.

5. S.B Capital Partners & Advisory Limited, engaged by the Board since 2018, offers credit review services for the NCDMB Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF) with Bank of Industry.

6. S.B Capital Partners & Advisory Limited credit review is to determine economic viability and bankability of projects submitted to the Board through the Bank of Industry (BoI) on our Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF).

7. The Board conducts all its operations within the highest levels of transparency, which is why we have for three consecutive years won the award from the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) as the number one agency in transparency and efficiency amongst all federal ministries, departments and agencies.

8. We urge the media and members of the public to completely disregard the concocted allegations by these desperate individuals, who are determined to tarnish the hard-earned reputation of the Board.

9. We know the sources and sponsors of these attacks on the Board and in due time they would be revealed.