Sopuruchi Onwuka

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) have restated their partnership towards establishing African centers of excellence in local content development.

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Both organizations also encouraged African petroleum producing countries to develop specialized capacities in core oil and gas services, and patronize one another in their respective areas of expertise.

These discussions took place when the Secretary General of APPO, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, visited the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, at the agency’s liaison office in Abuja.

The APPO scribe reiterated the organization’s proposal to partner NCDMB towards establishing centers of excellence in key aspects of the oil and gas industry. He remarked that NCDMB’s oil and gas parks would serve as centers of excellence, and accommodate original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and investors from other African oil producing countries.

Dr Farouk stated that similar centers would be established in other African countries, adding that some firms had approached APPO to indicate interest to invest in Nigerian oil and gas sector, particularly in the oil and gas parks.

He said it was imperative for African oil producing countries to collaborate closely, since none of them had sufficient technical and financial capacity to operate independently. He noted that close collaboration would help actualize the noble objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

Referencing Nigeria’s decades of experience in the oil and gas industry, Dr Ibrahim charged NCDMB to use its capacity building initiatives and facilities to train technicians and personnel who can work in key areas of the oil industry across Africa.

Healso invited NCDMB to partner and participate in the 4^th African Local Content Roundtable (ALCR), planned to hold in Congo, to be hosted by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons of the Republic of Congo.

He emphasized the need for NCDMB to reach out more to African oil producers and, share its success stories with those countries that looked up to Nigeria for guidance in local content and oil and gas operations.

According to him, APPO is determined to change the perception that African oil producing countries would continue to rely on foreign nations and external institutions to harness their petroleum resources. To achieve this, he said, Africa oil producers must accelerate steps in innovating technology and providing the funding needed for the sector’s operations, with one of the steps being the establishment of the African Energy Bank.

He lauded NCDMB on achieving consistent Nigerian content development in the past 14 years, underpinned by a robust framework, backed with strong political will.

Most African nations lack such structures, and subsumed their local content policies and agencies under their petroleum ministry or the national oil company, he said.

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary NCDMB reeled out the Board’s strategic support to other African petroleum nations, including the memorandum of agreement (MoU) on collaboration itsigned with the Petroleum Commission Ghana, in 2024; and with the Senegalese’s National Local Content Monitoring Committee in 2023; as well as capacity building workshops it organized for other African oil producing countries.

Engr Ogbe told Dr Farouk that the NCDMB is equally projecting and showcasing the capacities of established Nigerian oil and gas service companies to other African nations, opening new vista of opportunities for them in those markets. He underlined the need forNigerian service companies to partnerlocal companies whenever they enter other African countries, and to obey local laws.

Ogbe expressed delight over the proposal to designate the oil and gas parks as African centers of excellence, and affirmed that the parks would be completed and commissionedthis year, 2025.

He said the NCDMB has started inviting manufacturers and other intending investors to apply and take up shop floors in the park. He extended invitation to OEMs and other investors from across Africa and beyond to invest in the oil and gas park, remarking that Nigerian content emphasizes domiciliation and domestication of capacities, and not indigenization.

The NCDMB boss commended the APPO Scribe for his meritorious service to the African energy industry, culminating in the establishment the African Energy Bank, which has its headquarters in Abuja. He requested him to continue serving the African oil industry, even after the expiration of his tenure at APPO later this year.