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NCDMB Espouses Benefits of Insurance Industry Collaboration

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The Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has craved the understanding and support of the insurance sector to strengthen the Boards desire towards the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Act, NOGICD, in the sector.

Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary, ES, of the Board, who made the call at the 2023 Oriental News Nigeria conference in Lagos, with the theme, “Building Local Content Synergy between the Oil and Gas and the Insurance Sector in Nigeria” said over the years, the Board has taken deliberate steps to forge collaboration with various critical stakeholders to support the attainment of its strategic goals and mandate.

Wabote, who was represented by Mr. Daziba Patrick Obah. Director, Corporate Services of NCDMB, said that stakeholders’ engagement and collaboration is one of the key enablers to the Board’s ten-year strategic road map designed to achieve 70 per cent Nigerian content performance by the year 2027.

This he said is the reason for various engagement and collaboration between NCDMB and several MDAs, including the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM which crystalized in the joint issuance of the Insurance Guideline in 2022 to support the implementation of the insurance requirements contained in Sections 49 and 50 of the NOGICD Act 2010.

The main benefit of the guidelines according to Wabote, is the creation of a database of all insurance programs procured by the operators, project promoters, alliance partners, and Nigerian indigenous companies, to enable the Board monitor utilization of in-country insurance capacity thereby enhancing in-country value retention.

“It is worthy to emphasize that collaboration between government agencies is crucial for effective public service delivery through alignments of areas of strength, better decision-making, sharing of resources, optimization of opportunities and better understanding of issues and challenges with policy implementation.

“This ultimately, create huge benefits for both country and citizens, as it enables collaborating agencies to understand and respond to the needs and expectations of Nigerians. In NCDMB, we recognize the importance of collaboration and synergy amongst government organizations and other stakeholders to the fulfilment of our statutory mandate.

The Executive Secretary described the theme of the conference as apt and timely as it underscores the imperative of fostering the much-needed collaboration and synergy amongst MDAs and critical stakeholders; in this case between two critical regulators in the Oil and Gas Industry and the Insurance Industry.

“There is no doubt that Nigeria has not extracted sufficient value across the Nigerian oil and gas industry value chain since the commencement of hydrocarbon mining in Nigeria. It is this very low indigenous participation in the hydrocarbon value-chain in Nigeria that necessitated the enactment of the NOGICD Act in 2010 with the sole aim of deepening local content in the nations’ economy.

“Similarly, the performance of the insurance sector, particularly in relation to oil and gas businesses, is also sub-optimal due to various reasons.” Wabote observed.

Speaking further he said that building synergy between these two critical sectors of our economy holds huge potentials for growth and development of the Nigerian economy, adding, “The summit, therefore, presents a great opportunity for key stakeholders to brainstorm on the benefits and challenges impeding optimal performance in these two critical sectors.

“Furthermore, this summit offers us a strong veritable platform for the Insurance Industry, the Oil and Gas Industries, and other stakeholders to articulate processes, procedures, and practices to forge sustainable collaboration in optimizing opportunities and harnessing benefits for themselves as Nigerians.”

Dwelling more on the legislation, he said that, “In addition to various provisions of the NOGIC Act and the Insurance Act, Sections 49 and 50 of the NOGICD Act specifically provide concrete basis for NCDMB and NAICOM to work together to extract maximal value from both the Insurance and the Oil and Gas Industry for the Nigerian economy.

The Section 49(1) states: “All operators, project promoters, alliance partners and Nigerian indigenous companies engaged in any form of business, operations or contract in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, shall insure all insurable risks related to its oil and gas business, operations or contracts with an insurance company, through an insurance broker registered in Nigeria under the provisions of the Insurance Act as amended”

Also, Section 49(2) states: Each operator in subsection (1) of this section shall submit to the Board, a list of all insurance companies and insurance brokers through which insurance covers were obtained in the past six months, the class of insurance cover obtained, and the expenditures made by the operator while Section 50 states, No insurance risk in the Nigerian oil and gas industry shall be placed offshore without the written approval of the National Insurance Commission which shall ensure that Nigerian local capacity has been fully exhausted.”

Wabote further noted that Section 49 makes it mandatory for operators, project promoters and other entities in the oil and gas industry to obtain insurance coverage for all insurable risks with insurance companies and brokers that are registered in Nigeria in line with the Insurance Act (as amended).

“It is important to note that Section 50 forbids entities in the oil and gas industry from offshore placement of any insurable risks except with the written approval of NAICOM. The essence of these two provisions of the NOGIC Act is to ensure full utilization of available in-country capacity in the insurance sector by oil and gas industry players. The goal ultimately is to promote more capital retention in country and to boost the capacity of Nigerian insurance companies and brokers to support the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

“To give life to these sections of the NOGIC Act, NCDMB and NAICOM set up a   Technical Committee which developed the structures and strategies to promote and ease interface between both regulatory institutions.

“One of the tools to ease the interface between the two bodies involved the development of the NOGIC JQS Statutory Reporting Module which makes submission of insurance performance report by oil and gas companies to NCDMB automatically accessible to NAICOM for prompt review and feedback to NCDMB.

“The benefit of this virtual interface is to reduce the turnaround time and to promote the ease of doing business. NCDMB and NAICOM are still fine-tuning the Application Programming Interface to enhance its functionality and efficiency.” he said.

Speaking on seeming, challenges, the ES, said, “Despite the commitment of both agencies to optimize the benefit of the NOGICD Act and the Insurance Act, there are still some obstacles in the way of full implementation.

“One of the challenges of utilizing Nigerian loss adjusters or brokerage firms is the low capital base of the insurance industry. Closely related to it is the capacity of local insurance firms to underwrite the huge loss associated with a typical upstream petroleum project.”

He said, however that in response, NAICOM has made remarkable efforts to mitigate some of these limitations, but a lot still needs to be done.

He added that in the spirit of collaboration, NCDMB is poised to work with NAICOM as a credible partner every inch of the way to get around some of these obstacles particularly within the boundaries of our statutory mandate.

On the way forward he said the Board will not only look at the challenges of building sustainable synergies but will also come up with feasible proposals to encourage collaboration to surmount impediments.

“To address the issue of low capital base of the industry, for example, we call on all stakeholders to support NAICOM to push for an increase in the minimum capital base of insurance companies.

“Secondly, NAICOM and other stakeholders need to also work assiduously to forge and promote mergers of insurance companies to enhance their efficiencies and improve their market share as part of their collective benefits.

“I am aware that some steps have been taken in this direction, but these efforts need to crystallize into reality.” he added.


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IFC Invests $5m in Husk Nigeria to Build 108 Solar Mini Grids

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L-r: Ethiopis Tafara, Regional Vice President for Africa, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Olu Aruike, Country Director, Husk Power Systems, Nigeria during the signing of a $5m investment meant to expand access to reliable, renewable energy in Nigeria through IFC’s $250m DARES platform in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
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Husk Power Energy Systems Nigeria Ltd (Husk Nigeria), a subsidiary of solar mini-grid operator Husk Power Systems Inc., has received a $5 million investment from The International Finance Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, with the support of the Government of Canada.

IFC Invests $5m in Husk Nigeria to Build 108 Solar Mini Grids

L-r: Ethiopis Tafara, Regional Vice President for Africa, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and Olu Aruike, Country Director, Husk Power Systems, Nigeria during the signing of a $5m investment meant to expand access to reliable, renewable energy in Nigeria through IFC’s $250m DARES platform in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

The financing will support the rollout of Husk’s portfolio of solar hybrid mini grids in Northern Nigeria, helping address one of the country’s most urgent development challenges: access to electricity.

It marks the first investment under the IFC Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) Platform, a $200 million debt facility approved in November 2024 to catalyze private sector solutions across West and Central Africa.

The DARES Platform complements the World Bank-financed Nigeria DARES Project, a $750 million initiative launched in December 2023 and implemented by Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency.

Together, these efforts aim to provide over 17.5 million Nigerians with new or improved electricity access through decentralized renewable energy (DRE) systems.

 

IFC’s financing package will enable Husk to develop and operate up to 108 mini-grid sites, resulting in around 28,750 new electricity connections and delivering clean, affordable energy to around 115,000 people and businesses.

The total project cost is estimated at $25 million. IFC’s $5 million package includes a $2.5 million senior loan from its own account and a $2.5 million concessional subordinated loan from the Canada-IFC Renewable Energy Program for Africa.

The facility is structured as a revolving loan, allowing Husk to repay and redraw funds multiple times during the project’s implementation.

“The DARES Platform is an innovative approach to tackling one of Africa’s most pressing challenges—energy access. By partnering with Husk, a leading renewable energy developer globally, through the first project under the DARES Platform, we are not only addressing the immediate electricity needs of underserved communities in Nigeria but also laying the foundation for a scalable model that can be replicated across the continent,” said Ethiopis Tafara, regional vice president of Africa, IFC.

“This innovative debt facility is exactly what the minigrid industry needs to scale — blended, long-term and affordable capital,” said  Manoj Sinha, Husk co-founder and CEO.

“Access to working capital is critical for sustained and rapid growth. Adding 108 new communities to our minigrid portfolio with IFC support is an important step toward our goal of deploying at least 250MW of decentralized renewable energy projects in Nigeria.” said Olu Aruike, Manager, Husk Nigeria.

 

 


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Stakeholders Seek Strengthening of Digital Infrastructure @ IoT West Africa

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Stakeholders in the emerging technologies, Data Centre and Power have stressed the need to strengthen the country’s digital infrastructure for the application of internet of Things, and artificial intelligence.

 

They spoke at this year’s IoT West Africa, Data Centre and Cloud Expo, co-located with Power and Water Nigeria organised by Vertex Next.

Abba Abubakar Aliyu, managing director, Rural Electrification Agency (REA) in his keynote address said that, for true sustainable development to take place in any sector, “we must create opportunities and possibilities for a strong and sustainable energy ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, digital infrastructure must leverage, or must be leveraged, as an enabler, not as an oversight”.

Speaking on the topic: “Building Digital Infrastructure for Sustainable Rural Electrification in Nigeria”, said that one of the most critical benefits of electrification and digital infrastructure nexus is the ability to enable remote monitoring of all grid installations, especially mini grids and solar home systems.

“So, in the past, the Rural Electrification Agency, which prides itself in over 600 mini grids across the country, had some challenges with respect to monitoring our systems real time.

“But with the advancement in the IoT system, IoT sector, as well as tech sector, we’re able to have sensors that report energy throughput real time. This is why the ability of digitally enabled real time tracking of generation, consumption and even technical faults provide us with the information needed to make better decisions on the go,” he said.

Dr. Aliyu who was represented at the event by Dr. Bala Tyoden, Project manager, Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria, added: “For true sustainable development to take place in any sector, we must create opportunities and possibilities for a strong and sustainable energy ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, digital infrastructure must leverage, or must be leveraged, as an enabler, not as an oversight.

“We must understand that for digital infrastructure to thrive in rural education, policies must enable innovation. An example is the electrification act of 2003 that grants the rights to subnationals to joining the energy primary market so they can generate and distribute power now and other policy, all other policies in the pipeline to enable private sector participation in the sector.”

Dr. Aristotle Onumo, Director of Stakeholder Management and Partnerships at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) who spoke on “A Bird’s Eye View of IOT: Mapping the Future of Connected Intelligence in Africa”, said that the global IOT industry itself is growing, and it is estimated that by 2030, we are likely to have close about 29 billion connected systems across the globe, and which is an increase from 15.1 million in year 2020, think about the massive Increase.

Think about the quantum Leap and the global IoT market also is expected to support 1.6 trillion by the year 2025 that is at the end of this year, according to Mackenzie, the market itself is extended to exceed more than 1.6 trillion. And that’s the market we are in, and that is the environment we are operating.

The question is, what does this mean for Africa? What does this mean for Nigeria? Remember, Africa is about is a whole of our close about 1.4 billion people, and Nigeria, within that context, consists of about 14% of African population. Think about such a good population.

Think about what happens in Sub Saharan Africa, where the penetration of mobile penetration has increased, and that’s the Africa that we are, and it’s expected to grow up to a 88% by the year 2030, that is Africa for you.

And with the mobile penetration, with the kind of mobile infrastructure that is existing even Africa today, it provides a fertile ground for IOT. It provides a fertile ground for us to leap frog opportunity, not that we want to replicate the past, but to reinvent what the future looks like, and that’s what is important for us to consider, to think about, to imagine, to reason around.

Consider what happens in agriculture, which almost accounts 60% of employment in Africa. Think about the transformation I can take with smart technologies in agriculture, where IoT sensors can now measure oil motions, optimize irrigation and track livestock in a time. These are realities. They are not imaginary.

According to himAfrica currently accounts less, much more, less than any other continent in the global narrative. I’m not just talking about statistics. I’m not just talking about words or numbers to discourage us, but it is a call for action. What then do we think will be the economic impact of IoT in Africa?

According to World Bank reports, digital technologies alone could add plus about $300 billion in Africa GDP even by the end of this year. And IoT is at the heart of digital transformation. Mackenzie also has estimated that IoT has the potential of economic impact across the global market, exceeding 1.6 trillion naira and trillion dollars by the year 2025 with significant value in agriculture, logistics, energy, public health, all key priority in Africa. Imagine using predictive analytics from IoT sensors to reduce the cost of harvest loss.

Think about it in African countries where the harvest loss, especially in agriculture, is up close to 30 to 50% think about how you could use IoT for diagnosis to combat diseases that claim 1000s of lives every year. They are not just tech innovation. They are life saving devices.

He identified some challenges in the quest to reap the benefits of IOT such as connectivity gaps, especially in rural areas. “You agree with me that even in some rural areas, even in some areas, you see how 2G 3G some are struggling with 4G and a few they had where the 5G is actually working at this moment, when you think about the energy, it is a critical issue, not only In Nigeria, but across Africa, these connected devices need to be powered through networks.

So power is an essential issue. Is a challenge that we must overcome, cyber security and other governance. If we’re going to be connected across internet, connected across machines, machine talking to machines, then the issue of cyber security becomes an issue. Governance becomes very imperative.

Government comes in, has a great role to play in providing policies and guidelines that will help us to operate responsibly now help us to operate within the internet space in a manner that will serve and create value for the public, and perhaps most importantly, the skill gap. Studies have shown that, apparently, skill gap, not only in Africa, but across the globe.


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Tinubu’s Administration Expands Insurance Benefits for Federal Workers

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Federal Executive Council has approved a group life insurance scheme for federal government officials, civil servants, and some other workers at the federal level.

The approval was given at the FEC meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Council Chamber of the State House, Abuja.

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Didi Walson-Jack, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, said the scheme covers key government officials, comprising the President, the Vice President, the Chief of Staff, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, ministers, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, permanent secretaries and employees of federal government ministries and treasury funded agencies.

The scheme also covers paramilitary agencies such as the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, the Nigeria Correctional Service, the Federal Fire Service, the Federal Road Safety Corps, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

“The scheme underscores the importance that President Bola Tinubu’s Administration has placed welfare of staff, specifically the welfare of the federal public servant.

“The Group Life Insurance Scheme is a scheme whereby the Federal Government has taken out a life policy on each public servant. And this means that if the unfortunate incident of death occurs, the deceased public servants’ next of kin stands to have a benefit to help the family cushion the family at that time of loss,” Walson-Jack said.

The scheme is an annual one, and today’s approval was for the 2025/2026 policy year, which would commence from the date of payment of premium to underwriters in line with the no-premium, no cover policy.

However, she said the insurance scheme would expire at the end of 2026.

“The approval for today was for the appointment of 17 insurance underwriters for the group life insurance cover and the year 2025/2026. The premium is paid to the insurance companies for a duration of 12 months.

“So, this policy will expire next year. I just like to say that in as much as this policy has existed throughout this administration and even previous administrations, we find that not too many people know about the policy, and so we have, from my office, even planned to carry out a sensitisation, which will be coming up very soon,” she added.


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