The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has, in Cape Town, South Africa, outlined key skill areas the commission is focusing on in its capacity-building efforts for optimal job creation opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
The Executive Secretary of the Board, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe disclosed this in his keynote address at the on-going Africa Energy Week (AEW), as he shared Nigeria’s success story in local content development.
The skill areas highlighted for special focus include underwater welding, subsea engineering, geosciences, project management, deepwater operations (drilling, production engineers), instrumentation and controls. Others are digitalization including Artificial Intelligence (AI), helicopter pilots, with a delivery model that is based on classroom and hands-on approach.
Delivering the address entitled “From Policy to Prosperity: Scaling Local Content for Africa’s Energy Future,” the Executive Secretary said no policy succeeds without people, and that challenges such as infrastructure gaps and financing limitations “are not reasons to slow down” but “reasons to deepen collaboration between government, operators, service companies and host communities” to co-create solutions.
He pointed out that in the aforementioned challenges and expected solutions are a shared opportunity for African countries to “harmonize local content policies, create regional supply chains, and leverage continental institutions like the emerging African Energy Bank.”
He further charged African countries to ensure that the skills of citizens, the creativity of entrepreneurs and strength of their institutions define the future of African energy.
The Executive Secretary, who was represented by the Director Corporate Services of the NCDMB, Dr. Adbdulmalik Halilu, noted that the local content strategy developed by the Africa Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) for member countries and the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement policy of the African Union are “clear pathways towards fostering trade-based multilateral cooperation within the continent.”
He emphasized that scaling local content requires human capital development and deployment, infrastructure development, technology and innovation, cross-border collaboration and partnerships (common standards, tariff and demand), in addition to policy harmonization.
On Nigeria’s local content journey, with in-country value addition now at 57 per cent, up from five per cent in 2010, when the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010, the NCDMB boss said the overarching objective was to position Nigeria as the destination of choice for investment in exploration and production (E&P) but most importantly to create jobs for citizens and new industries supporting E&P value chain, while ensuring sustainable operations for future generations.
Local content implementation, according to him, was anchored on six broad pillars, namely, regulatory framework, gap analysis, capacity building, incentives and funding research and development (R&D), and access to market, and driven by several policy interventions.
