Izomor: Tinubu Has Restored Investors’ Confidence in Oil and Gas Sector  

In this interview with Ejiofor Alike, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of MG Vowgas Limited, Mr. Godwin Izomor speaks on the company’s huge investments in local capacity development, negative impact of absence of steel rolling mill on Nigeria’s industrialisation drive and how President Bola Tinubu’s administration has created the enabling environment that made foreign investors trust Nigeria again, among others. Excerpts

Other Nigerian indigenous companies are complaining of lack of jobs; they are complaining that their multi-million-dollar facilities are idle. But your company is building more facilities. What is motivating you to embark on these new investments?

The secret behind our investments is delivering good jobs to our clients; a good job brings another work. If you do good work, it will give you another job because the oil and gas industry is a highly technical area and not everybody can survive in that area, especially in fabrication. It’s highly capital intensive; it’s highly technical. So, for you to invest to survive in that place, you must be conscious of the fact that you must know the in-depth of fabrication. Fabrication is not just welding.

We are the only company in Nigeria that have ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) certification. We are the only Nigerian indigenous company that has ASME certification. All the other indigenous companies that have ASME certification got the certification when they were still foreign companies. They later localized themselves and became indigenous companies. We are the only truly indigenous company that has ASME certification.

Others were foreign companies that later localised themselves. MG Vowgas is the first indigenous and the only indigenous company that has been able to sustain their stamp over the years. We have sustained our stamp and our stamp is renewed every three years. The other companies do not.

Again, we have what we call a welding management system. It’s only issued by ISO International Standard. And we are the only company that has it today. It used to be MG Vowgas and Saipem, but Saipem is no longer in Nigeria today. So, we are the only company that has it.

During the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, foreign investors did not make major investments in Nigeria; they claimed that they were waiting for the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). The only major project that was launched was the NLNG Train 7. There were no jobs in the oil and gas industry and they blamed the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB). Now that the industry has the PIA, what has changed now that President Bola Tinubu is in power?

We can give credit to the government of President Bola Tinubu. In the oil and gas industry, he has done excellently. If there is any area that we can give credit to this government, it’s the oil and gas industry.

The international oil companies (IOCs) are launching new projects. Shell has launched the Bonga North and is launching the Bonga South West. How are these projects going to impact Nigerian indigenous companies?

It’s a good development. And all Nigerian companies – we must support the government to encourage the IOCs to do more investments in the oil and gas industry. The oil and gas industry is a critical area that has a way of circulating and retaining the benefits of any project within the Nigerian economy. If one company wins a project, many 10 Nigerian indigenous companies can be beneficiaries of the same project.

If we get it right in oil and gas, it will circulate and create multiplier effects in the economy.

The benefits will spread to the banks; it will spread to the small and medium companies operating within Nigeria. So, the government has captured that. President Bola Tinubu understands that area and his administration is making efforts to create the enabling environment. The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) is not a perfect document. That is why he has given some concessions to the international oil companies (IOCs) to bring more money. Nigerian indigenous companies do not have robust funds to invest heavily in the oil and gas industry. We must rely on international companies.

Lack of a functional steel rolling mill has been identified as a major factor militating against Nigeria’s industrialisation. How does it affect the oil and gas industry?

Lack of a steel rolling mill is a major challenge in the oil and gas industry. Nigeria cannot industrialise as a nation without a functional steel rolling mill. Steel rolling mills are a critical component for any nation to industrialise.

President Tinubu’s administration should look into it very critically. I expect the government to mandate the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to utilize the Local Content Fund and partner with local or international companies to build a new steel rolling mill – different from the Ajaokuta Steel Complex because Ajaokuta is entangled with so many problems.

Let the Nigerian government consider setting up another rolling mill. The Local Content Fund can be used to pay for the government’s equity in a new rolling mill.

We need a steel rolling mill in Nigeria to realise our industrialization drive. We have a lot of fabrication yards in the country that can fabricate important components of heavy machinery and equipment.

But the cost of importing steel into the country is very prohibitive. Some foreign companies are destroying the Nigerian economy by making sure that Ajaokuta doesn’t work so that Nigeria will continue to depend on importation of steel from other countries.

You can imagine how much we spend annually on steel importation – about $4billion.

If we can spend $4billion annually to import steel, why can’t we build a steel rolling mill?   We must look inwards for a solution to this problem.

What other things do you recommend that President Tinubu’s administration should do to encourage more indigenous investments in the oil and gas industry?

This administration is already doing what it should do to encourage investments by giving incentives to foreign companies to invest in the oil and gas industry.  I must give it to President Tinubu that he has a strong knowledge of the industry and he has worked hard to create the enabling environment for investors to trust Nigeria again. He has restored the confidence of investors in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Do not forget that for eight years of the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, no international oil company invested in the oil and gas industry because Buhari’s administration was not ready to give any concession to investors to bring money into the country. Every investor wants to take his money to a place he will earn adequate returns on investment. President Tinubu is making concessions to encourage foreign investors.

When are we expecting the commissioning of your ongoing projects?

We are going to invite the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and some media houses for a tour of our different facilities between April and June. They will tour our Onne facility, the Warri facility, and then our expansion project in our main facility in Port Harcourt.

So, you are also building one in Onne, apart from the Port Harcourt facility?

Yes, we are building a new one in Onne, right now. Two projects are ongoing, simultaneously – the Onne and Warri facilities.