The Bonny Kingdom Local Content and Compliance Committee (BKLCCC) has announced that, barring any new impediments to its take off, the Train 7 Project of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited would kick off in 2021.

It further announced that early works for the project would commence by January 2021, adding that, so far, over 1,000 indigenous contractors have been registered for the project.

Chairman of the BKLCCC, Opuada Willie-Pepple, who made this disclosure at a One-Day Sensitization Workshop on the NLNG Train 7 Project on Thursday, December 24, 2020, at the Ibanise Hall, Akiama, Bonny, said “we have been informed by the SCD-JV that Train 7 project will commence next year – 2021”.

While assuring that the interest of Bonny Kingdom would be protected in the project, Willie-Pepple stated that the process of registering the contractors, which he described as “transparent, fair and all inclusive,” was a joint effort between the BKLCCC and the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

“This Committee has engaged in series of meetings with Nigeria LNG, NCDMB and SCD-JV, to extract the community content for Bonny Kingdom in the Train 7 project, in line with the NCDMB community content guideline and the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content development Act.”  

He informed that in pursuit of actualizing its mandate of securing the community content for Bonny Kingdom, which covers business opportunities for contractors, job opportunities for professionals, skilled and unskilled workers, and capacity development for all involved in the Train 7 project, it has “developed a website to generate data on professional and skilled employments and trainings”.

He further assured that his committee would sustain its engagement with all stakeholders to ensure issues related to contractors’ verification were resolved before the start of the Train 7 project.

In his remarks, Coordinating Chief of the Train 7 project, Chief Hanniel Jack-Wilson Pepple stated that the website: www.bonnylcd.com was part of the process of expanding the scope of opportunities as envisioned by the Amanyanabo and Natural Ruler of Bonny Kingdom, His Majesty, King Edward Asimini William Dappa Pepple III, CON, Perekule XI.

He commended the untiring efforts and relentless drive of the BKLCCC in pursuing the actualization of its mandate, expressing the hope that the people of the area would take advantage of the opportunity provided by the website to populate a database that would help the committee secure the maximum opportunities for Bonny Kingdom.

He also allayed fears that the database being developed would be a tool for controlling the opportunities available in the project to make it available to a few ‘loyal’ members of the community, calling on every indigene of Bonny Kingdom to maximize the opportunity to prepare for the Train 7 project.   

Making a presentation at the event, a former Leader of the Bonny Youth Federation (BYF), Simeon Wilcox announced that the committee had developed a professional and skills database of Bonny LGA, disclosing that the database which can be accessed at www.bonnylcd.com.

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He explained that applicants can provide their resume, contacts, family background, skills set and availability for trainings on the website, disclosing that the site can be accessed from anywhere while those who are not too literate can go to their various chieftaincy house where focal persons have designated to provide assistance with the registration process.

On his part, a member of the BKLCCC and a former Caretaker Committee (CTC) Chairman of Bonny LGA, Cyril Hart called for prioritizing the engagement of Bonny indigenes in the post-construction phase of projects in Bonny, noting that it was unacceptable that community members participate in developing the project while non-natives are engaged in production phase.

He assured his kinsmen and women that the committee was poised to achieve its mandate, stressing that strategic engagements with relevant stakeholders was key to ensuring that the interest of Bonny Kingdom was assured in the NLNG Train 7 and all other projects. 

Also making a presentation at the workshop, Chairman of the Bonny Integrated Recruitment Centre (BIRC), Dagogo Jumbo, who praised the BKLCCC for the milestones it has achieved in pursuit of Bonny Kingdom;s interest in the Train 7 project, expressed the commitment of the BIRC management under his leadership to synergize with the committee to achieve set objectives.

Also, speaking, Leader of the Bonny Youth Federation (BYF), Emmanuel Finecountry stated that the BYF under his leadership was ready to partner with the BKLCCC and other relevant stakeholders to achieve the dream of creating opportunities for the youths of Bonny Kingdom, expressing profound confidence in the capacity of the committee to deliver on its mandate.    

Highpoint of the event was the launching of the website: www.bonnylcd.com by Chief Hanniel Jack-Wilson Pepple, accompanied by members of the BKLCCC.