From Seyi Tayese, Yenagoa
Fabunmi Wisdom David has emerged as the overall winners of the Nigerian Content Development And Monitoring Board (NCDMB) Annual National Undergraduate Essay Competition,2026.
Fabunmi a 20 year 200 level Physiotherapy student at University of Ilorin in Kwara state is an indigene of Kogi state who was among the top 10 finalists clinched first position and went home with one million naira and a laptop.
While the second and third runner-up went home with five hundred thousand naira and seven hundred thousand naira, with a laptop each.
This year Prize Giving Ceremony of the NCDMB Annual National Undergraduate Essay Competition was the 10th in the series with this year theme: “Promoting Manufacturing for Sustainable Local Content Development”
In his key note address, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB Engr. Omatsola Ogbe said, the idea in organizing this essay competition program,was to build the capacity of young ones and inculcating in them local content consciousness.
According to Engr. Ogbe, at the NCDMB they believe that you don’t just get certificates, you also have to get the knowledge to drive what you do. “And writing, researching, helps you to get the knowledge that you need to not just work in the oil and gas industry, but also what we call linked sectors. And that is why we are organizing this writing competition to create awareness of local content in universities, in young ones”.
The Executive Secretary who was represented by Dr. Obinna Ezeobi General Manager Corporate Communications Division NCDMB said, Beyond this program, they also have several other interventions for universities.
Speaking further said, “for those of you here today as students, we have what we call Catch the Researcher Young program. Again, it’s called Catch the Researcher Young program, which is an initiative where we have those of you in universities participate in mentorship, in R&D, in guided ICT to have you get local content consciousness while you are doing internship. All of this is to ensure that we build a great workforce by the time you graduate. What we are doing today also, like I mentioned before, connects perfectly to what we call the Nigerian Content 10-year roadmap, particularly that pillar that we call Technical Capacity Development”.
” And we encourage every one of you who have either people who are studying in universities or who have graduates in engineering or that kind of fields to register on the Nigerian JQS to participate in what we call the NCDMB Oil and Gas Field Readiness Training, where we are training 10,000 Nigerians in the top 10 skills needed for the oil and gas industry today.
“This Year, we decided to pivot, to promote the topic around manufacturing and the connection to sustainable local content development. You will need to know that manufacturing is the bedrock of sustainable local content. As a matter of fact, you cannot grow local content sustainably without having manufacturing being planned and developed. And that is why the NCDMB set up what we call the Nigerian Oil and Gas Field Program, the Nigerian Oil and Gas Park.
“We are hopeful that the essays are not just providing theories, but also giving us practical steps that we can take to drive manufacturing to a sustainable journey. We are hoping to read the essays to see the things they say to us regarding how can universities collaborate with industry, what policy instruments are required to support industrial manufacturing, how can young Nigerians create ideas that translate into viable business. We are hoping to see you give us ideas, how to create opportunities that will take ideas to sustainable products”.
In his welcome address, Mr. Eyinimi Omorozi, CEO. Mahogany 21st Century Concepts Limited (Program Consultant) said it is ten solid years of investing in ideas, saying it is the youth, the young ones that are the main drivers of local content.
Mr. Omorozi further said, for this year they received well over 5,000 entries from over 52 universities across six geopolitical zones of this country. “From Sokoto to Yenagoa, from Maiduguri to Lagos, students wrote. They wrote, and the the topic for 2026 was: Promoting Manufacturing for Sustainable Local Content Development, and it was very beautiful, very timely, very apt. And I must tell you this: reading the essays of these young men, you can just tell that the future is bright.
“Your participation certificate today is not just a paper. It is a proof that you can think critically, research deeply, and articulate a national vision. Congratulations once again. You are a part of 10 years legacy of over 60,000 Nigerians, youths, who have participated in this program”.
In his speech, the chairman of the occasion Prof. Promise Mebine, Vice Chancellor Federal University Otuoke, commended NCDMB, saying year after year, ten years, “they have proven that building Nigerian content is not only about pipelines and platforms running through the communities, the houses of Bayelsa State, the local governments, but of course about building people, particularly our youths, the leaders of tomorrow. And so you have done so well”
