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.
