The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Felix Ogbe, has charged sub-Saharan African nations to keep pace with unfolding trends in the global oil and gas industry and adopt a unified approach in strengthening local content development, advancing industrialisation, and fostering sustainable continent-wide economic growth.
In a keynote address at the SAIPEC event held in Lagos yesterday, Ogbe said nations like Nigeria, Angola, and Ghana have made notable strides in local content development by boosting indigenous participation in the oil and gas sector. He, however, expressed regret that “fragmented implementation continues to hinder collective progress.”
He called for a collaborative strategy among petroleum-producing nations in sub-Saharan Africa to foster the sharing of best practices and enhance cross-border partnerships that could drive the competitiveness of indigenous players.
Ogbe identified harmonisation of local content policies, human capital development, investment in infrastructure, funding for local companies, and technology transfer as key pillars of Africa’s collaboration strategy.
He noted that there is a need to develop a robust local content framework that positions the region for long-term economic prosperity, saying this could be fostered through the collaborative efforts of African Petroleum Producers Organisations, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, and the African Union.
He also highlighted the importance of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement as a critical legal framework that could be leveraged to achieve a collaborative local content strategy in Africa, given the free trade area it has created by integrating 1.3 billion people across 54 African countries with a combined gross domestic product of over $3tn.
On human capital development, which he described as pivotal to the successful implementation of local content, he observed that approximately 60 per cent of Africa’s population is currently under the age of 25, adding that this teeming population provides a unique opportunity to fast-track development.
“A large, young workforce,” he noted, “can drive expansion through increased productivity and expansion,” he maintained.
The NCDMB boss dwelt at length on how investment in infrastructure could catalyse regional economic growth, citing the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Integrated Refinery and Petrochemical Company, which he noted would afford Nigeria and other African countries’ partnership opportunities for sourcing petroleum products and fertiliser.
According to him, similar projects capable of leveraging collaborations include Kenya’s Konza Technology City, Grand Ethiopian Dam, Lekki Free Trade Zone (Lagos), and facilities like the SHI-MCI FPSO Fabrication/Integration Yard in Lagos.
Others highlighted by the executive secretary were NCDMB’s Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks Scheme being developed in seven locations in Nigeria, to which he invited interested businessmen and investors seeking to manufacture industry-related equipment, components, and spares to apply.
Speaking on funding, Ogbe said a regional fund or financial framework that provides credit facilities, guarantees, and investment incentives would strengthen indigenous firms, noting with satisfaction that an African Energy Bank, established by APPO with the support of the NCDMB, which has taken equity investment in it, is soon to be operational.