THE Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has urged relevant government agencies to accord the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act the seriousness it deserves to ensure the actualisation of the Vision 20: 2020.
The NSE Nigerian Local Content Committee made the call in Calabar at a workshop jointly organised with the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) with the theme: “Infrastructural development as a stimulus for the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act”.
The committee’s chairman, Chris Okoye, said: “Being in control of our means of production can only be actualised through diligent and wholesome implementation of the provisions of the Nigerian Content Act”.
Meanwhile, Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Victor Ochei, an engineer, has challenged Nigerian engineering practitioners to channel their expertise to the country’s advancement, saying the profession is central to any developmental process.
He made the statement at the NSE’s 44th Annual General Meeting where he was conferred with its Fellowship at a ceremony in Calabar.
Earlier, the NSE President, Olumuyiwa Ajibola, noted that Nigeria’s poor road network, inefficient rail system and non-existent inland waterways negated the principles of economic advancement.
According to Okoye, Nigeria can evolve into a developed economy if it can harness and refine home-grown technologies, which he said, would allow it dictate the pace of its growth.
“Nigeria’s dreams and aspirations of emerging as one of the world’s top 20 economies by the year 2020 will only remain as mere unfulfilled dreams and inordinate aspirations unless the development of infrastructure is made a cardinal point of the Nigerian economic planning”, he added.
Executive Secretary of PTDF, Dr. Muttaga Rabe Darma, identified infrastructural development as a key driver for the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act.
Darma, represented by the PTDF Head of Upstream, Mr. Olayinka Agboola, stated that the per capita income of the nation was still very low because Nigeria’s was more of a trading economy than a producing one.
“At present, Nigeria requires about 15,000mw of electricity in line with its aspirations to become a developed nation. This can only be realised if necessary infrastructure is available in the country”, he said.
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By Anietie Akpan, Calabar
