Adewale Banjo
Senate Committee on Local Content is to investigate the non-patronage of a multi-million dollar internationally certified Nigerian pipe manufacturing and coating company, SCC Nigeria Limited, by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and International Oil Companies (IOCs), contrary to the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act since 2014.
The company located in Ushafa, Abuja, and employing over 500 Nigerians, which had manufactured different specifications of pipes for NNPC, Mobil Producing, Shell Development Company Limited, Nigeria Agip Oil Company and Chevron Nigeria Limited to the tune of $183.76 million between 2008 and 2014, has been idle since then, due to lack of patronage by players in the oil and gas and water project sectors of the economy.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content, Senator Solomon Adeola, who led 11 members of his committee, including two principal officers of the senate, on an inspection tour of the factory, at the weekend, said the committee will investigate the possible breach of the NOGICD Act by the NNPC and IOCs, beyond the issue of competitive pricing. He said there is no way local industries can be competitive against foreign company’s imported products without patronage based on our local content law.
“We are surprise that we have such an internationally certified company here in Nigeria, with antecedent of executing major contracts in the past and employing many Nigerians without being patronised. Already, some constituents of a member of the Senate have been laid off as a result of non-patronage, while huge foreign exchange has been taken abroad to procure pipes.
“Our law grants local company right of first refusal, and there is no reason this should not apply to this company,” Adeola said.
He asked the company to furnish the committee with relevant information on its predicament and assured that the committee will take up the issue with NNPC, IOCs and other stakeholders with a view to ensuring that the company resumes operations at the earliest opportunity.
He said it is regrettable that local capacity already developed by the company are idle and being temporarily laid off.
Senator Dino Melaye, a member of the committee, said it is unacceptable to have such a specialised manufacturing concern employing many Nigerians remain idle while NNPC and IOCs take pipeline contracts abroad contrary to our law.
He said the committee will dig further to unravel why the company is not being patronised beyond the issue of competitive pricing.
Earlier, Director of Operation of SCC Nigeria Limited, Wale Adebayo, told the committee that the company got its last order in 2014, and added that since then, there has been several pipeline contracts in the industry without recourse to the only Nigeria pipe manufacturing and coating company that has all international certifications. He said their findings point to competitive prices by mostly Chinese companies which are patronised by stakeholders contrary to the local content law.