Oil industry: FG rejects 2,208 expatriate quota applications

PUNCH

BY STANLEY OPARA

Mr. Ernest Nwapa and President Goodluck Jonathan

As the implementation of the expatriate quota in the oil and gas sector gets stricter, more foreign workers and those intending to come into the business are getting increasingly frustrated, STANLEY OPARAwrites

More expatriates working in the oil and gas sector as well as those nursing the ambition of coming into Nigeria on professional grounds are no longer finding it funny as many of their applications are being turned down.

The situation, our correspondent learnt from industry sources, would get tenser in the nearest future, especially as the campaign for indigenisation in the sector gained momentum.

The Progress Report of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board for 2014, obtained by our correspondent, revealed that between January and March this year, out of 2,567 expatriate quota applications, only 1,032 were granted, while 1,113 were rejected.

Already, 1,716 foreign workers have so far been captured under the biometric data capture scheme of the government. This is aimed at monitoring the database to promote informed decision making and prevent possible abuse.

The Nigerian Petroleum Exchange Joint Qualification System live database, according to the report, currently has 20,587 individual records; 17 operator portal accounts (with only four active operators); and 5,480 service company portal accounts (with 888 active service companies).

The total number of marine vessels operating in the country had also been captured on the portal, our correspondent gathered.

According to the report, expatriates working in the oil and gas industry are now required to undertake biometric registration. This is a requirement for obtaining expatriate quota approvals from the NCDMB. The system was deployed on July 22, 2013.

Between January and December 2013, the report put the NJQS live database at 18,205 individual records; 16 operator portal accounts (with just four active operators); and 5,415 service company portal accounts (with 800 active companies).

“Out of a total of 2,519 expatriate quota applications during the period, 984 were granted, while 1,095 positions were rejected,” the report stated.

However, it added that the total employment commitments tied to expatriate quota approvals during the period by operating companies and service companies were 2,183

According to it, 1,176 foreign workers (service companies, 547; operators, 629) were captured under the biometric data capture scheme in the whole of 2013.

The NCDMB is said to have collaborated with Galaxy Backbone Nigeria Limited, a Federal Government agency, to establish data centres and digital centres at its headquarters, the Abuja liaison office and five zonal offices.

The centres, it was gathered, would serve as a single convergence point for all deployed solutions of the board and also serve as a platform for industry intelligence reporting, information exchange and capacity development.

In the last quarter of 2013, the Senate Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity conducted an investigation into alleged expatriates quota violations by oil and construction firms in the country.

The then Chairman of the committee, Senator Wilson Ake, said the committee summoned the companies to determine their level of complicity or otherwise.

Among the companies that appeared before the committee were Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, Setraco Nigeria Limited, B. Stabillini and Company Construction Nigeria Limited, PW Nigeria Limited, CCECC, Sarplast Nigeria Limited and Bullet International Nigeria Limited.

Others were BNL Nigeria Limited, Salini Nigeria Limited, Gilmor Engineering Nigeria Limited, Gitto Constrozio Generali Nigeria Limited, Arab Contractors Nigeria Limited, and SCC Nigeria Limited.

Ake told them that it was worrisome that some foreign companies were in the habit of violating the laws of the land through non-compliance with labour laws affecting safety, security and welfare of workers.

He noted that the Immigration Act, 2004 made it mandatory that the companies that recruited expatriate personnel in the engineering or technical sector must also recruit Nigerians with relevant qualifications to understudy such expatriates within a specific period of time in line with the policy on transfer of technology, expertise and succession plan.

The lawmaker had insisted that such positions were not meant to be occupied permanently by expatriates as it was currently the case with most of the companies in the oil and construction industries.

He said the action became necessary following complaints about non-compliance with the country’s employment policies as well as other laws regulating the operations of such firms in the country, adding that the meeting was part of efforts to verify some of the complaints levelled against the companies by members of the public.

Ake said the committee had received numerous complaints against some of the companies allegedly violating the expatriate quota law, the Local Content Act as well as the general neglect of safety and the security of their workers, adding that certain jobs that ordinarily should be given to Nigerians were being outsourced.

The NCDMB, which was established to oversee the implementation of the Act, was mandated to, within four years, ensure the retention of over $10bn out of an average annual oil and gas industry expenditure of $20bn in the Nigerian economy, compared to the current sum of less than $4bn.

It is also expected to facilitate the creation of over 30,000 direct employment and training opportunities, considering the scale of activities to be domiciled in Nigeria; establish three to four new pipe mills to service the demands of the industry and other ancillary manufacturing plants for coatings, valves, fittings and components.

According to the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr. Ernest Nwapa, the strategy has been successfully deployed to stimulate small and medium scale enterprises focused on the oil and gas technology into sustainable engines for technological growth and employment at the grass roots level.

He also said expatriates working in the Nigerian oil and gas industry would continue to undertake biometric registration as part of the conditions they must fulfil before their organisations could secure expatriate quota approvals from the NCDMB.

The exercise, Nwapa said, would capture details of all foreigners working for operating and service companies in the country on the electronic platform being operated by the board.

He said the registration would help the board to evaluate the skills of the expatriates and confirm that such skills were not available locally in the industry.

It will also assist the board to electronically track the number of expatriates in the industry, their length of stay, compliance with provided succession plans and expected date of exit, he explained.

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