Nigeria’s first oil and gas park built by the Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has opened its doors for business.

NCDMB Director of Corporate Communications, Engr Ginah O. Ginah, disclosed this on Thursday during a media tour of the park located in Odukpani, Cross River State.

“This park is ready for habitation,” Engr Ginah said of the facility started 10 years ago. “We have already advertised for interested manufacturers and are presently going through applications to see those who are qualified,” he added.

The NCDMB Director of Corporate Communications noted that all needed facilities have been provided to make the place conducive for the manufacturers. These include manufacturing hall, security, roads, 24-hour power supply, banking hall, restaurant, and state-of-the-art ICT facilities. Others include fire service, water treatment plant, mini parks for accommodation, and free land for those who wish to build their own structures.

“All these are things that increase cost of production, so this park is going to crash the cost of production,” Engr. Ginah said of the facility located on 25 hectares of land.

To further make the park attractive, the Federal Government has pledged $50m to attract companies to the parks.

Engr Ginah disclosed that several other such parks are under construction across the Niger Delta as part of NCDMB’s efforts to significantly increase local content in the oil and gas industry and generally drive Nigeria’s industrialisation.

“We have taken Nigeria’s local content level from 5% to 55%. The industry spends about $20 billion a year, so you are talking of about $10 billion saved annually,” Engr Ginah said.

He stressed that NCDMB’s goal is to take the local content in the industry up to 70% by 2027, and “the only way to achieve that is to ensure local manufacturing of components, which is why we are building these parks.”