April 22, 2010 is a notable milestone in the annals of the Nigerian oil and gas sector. On that day, 15 years ago, former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan signed the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Bill into law. Based on the impact made in the implementation of the historic legislation, and the significant benefits that have continued to accrue to the nation, the local content policy must count as one of the most successful economic policies since the return to democracy in 1999. The policy has redefined the priorities of the oil and gas sector in a Nigeria-First direction, underscored the centrality of sustainability as a core policy consideration and catalyzed significant benefits to businesses and communities across the country.

It is an honour to serve at the helm of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the implementing agency for this vital policy at a time that the Tinubu administration is executing bold reforms in the sector. In sync with the spirit of the times, we will not roll out drums to celebrate this particular anniversary. But we enjoin oil industry players, partners and members of the public to take pride in the impressive progress we have made collectively, reflect on the gains of implementation and recalibrate plans for moving forward.

Prior to the NOGICD Act, the situation was quite abysmal. The level of Nigerian Content in the oil and gas sector was less than five percent because the focus was on revenue derivation from the oil and gas sector over in-country value creation.  As a result, nearly all fabrication, engineering, and procurement for the oil and gas industry were executed abroad. Conservative estimates suggest that Nigeria’s national economy suffered capital flight of about $380 billion in the first 50 years of oil production and lost opportunities to create over two million jobs. The nation also missed out on opportunities to catalyze research and development, manufacturing and support services.

To change this highly unsatisfactory reality, NCDMB has since 2010 worked collaboratively with other entities and stakeholders to grow the local content level in the oil and gas sector from less than five percent to 57 percent as at February 2025. In the process, over 50,000 jobs have been created, 13,000 training man-hours delivered through capacity development programmes in addition to other countless projects and opportunities. One of such projects is the ongoing $5 billion Nigeria LNG Train 7 project, 50 per cent of which is being executed locally, employing over 8,300 Nigerians.

By ensuring the organic application of the local content policy across linkage sectors, NCDMB has encouraged Nigerian firms to acquire hi-tech assets and equipment and expand operations to other nations. Nigerian operating companies were thus able to acquire and operate the fields and assets divested by some international operating companies because of the enormous growth of local content, especially in human and material capacities.

Today, several Nigerians service companies have invested in sophisticated vessels and rigs – assets that used to be the exclusive preserve of foreign companies. Local firms now enjoy patronage and even exclusivity in land and swamp areas of the industry, retaining huge industry spend in the economy, employing Nigerians and building skills and  domiciling most industry work that used to be exported. 

Broadly, our priorities over the past 15 years have included the following: promoting indigenous ownership of equipment used in industry operations; promoting manufacturing of oil and gas components by local firms; giving first consideration to Nigerian indigenous companies; ensuring that Nigerian content targets are met for projects and operations. We have also prioritized training and employment opportunities for Nigerians and the deployment of the Nigerian Content Development Fund for targeted capacity building. Relatedly, we ensure that local capacity investors have work to amortize investments even as oil producing communities are involved organically in the activities of the sector.

The impact of the NOGICD Act reverberates beyond Nigeria. NCDMB currently mentors many nations on how to implement local content policies, maximize in-country value addition and create wealth for their citizenry. Despite these accomplishments, we continue to strive towards the 70 per cent target we set for ourselves for 2027 under the Nigerian Content 10-Year Strategic Roadmap, while taking cognizance of the changing dynamics in the world energy industry.

Going forward, the three Presidential Directives (PDs) on Nigerian oil and gas operations issued by President Tinubu to the Nigerian oil and gas industry in March 2024 provide the perfect platform to reevaluate and retool our strategies. The Presidential Directives were conceived to incentivize investments in the sector and improve the turn-around time for concluding contracts – addressing two cancers that plagued the sector. Specifically, the Directives mandated us and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to take deliberate steps to fast-track approvals of oil and gas projects and use local content guidelines to attract investments and create value from the operations of the industry.

We swiftly adopted the Presidential Directives in our operations. In December 2024 we unveiled our new oil and gas contracting guidelines, reducing our touchpoints or interventions on the industry contracting cycle from nine to five for open and selective tenders, and four touchpoints for single source contracts. We made these changes to fast-track approvals, eliminate middlemen from the industry operations and shorten the industry cycle time to six months. Using our new guidelines, we approved four new oil and gas projects, estimated to add 350 thousand barrels of crude oil per day and one billion standard cubic feet of gas.

With the Presidential Directives as our beacon, NCDMB has, since I assumed office as Executive Secretary in December 2023, sustained the momentum of implementation and injected fresh energy in driving the 10-Year Strategic Roadmap. Here are a few highlights. We conceptualized the Back to the Creek Initiative, which takes the benefits of local content operations to communities across the country. One of our goals with the initiative is to revamp primary and post primary schools in our hinterlands, and prepare the students to meet the ICT needs of this age.

Also, we prioritize supporting oil and gas firms to develop oil and gas projects, thereby growing Nigeria’s crude oil production and the nation’s revenue. In this regard, we will continue to be pragmatic in implementing and enforcing the provisions of the NOGICD Act. While we will ensure that international and indigenous operators patronize and utilize all existing capacities and domicile work in-country, we must encourage operating companies to develop new projects profitably and speedily. It is heartwarming that Nigerian Content has also grown remarkably on the production side. Indigenous producers now account for about 50 percent of Nigeria’s crude oil production.

We are doing a lot more. Under my watch, NCDMB is also leading the remodeling of the Community Contractors Fund Scheme to provide funding for community contractors in the oil and gas industry. As part of this review, eligible community contractors can now access N100m to support their businesses in the oil and gas industry.  The Community Contractors Fund Scheme is part of the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCI Fund), which we operate  in partnership with the Bank of Industry (BoI) and Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank. The Fund supports local contractors, manufacturers and service providers with long tenor facility and single digit interest rate.

The Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Schemes NOGAPS) is also a transformative flagship project. We have almost completed the pilot parks at Odukpani, Cross River State and at Emeyal-1 in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Preliminary plans are afoot to build similar parks at Akwa Ibom, Imo, Delta, Abia, Edo, Ondo. The parks will spur manufacturing of equipment components and spare parts that would be utilized in the industry. Each will create about 2000 jobs when it begins full operations. 

Another area we have recorded appreciable progress is our investments in commercial ventures, notably in modular refineries, gas projects and similar initiatives. We invested in 16 ventures across the hydrocarbon value chain, to catalyze investments in key areas of the sector, add value to natural resources and create employment opportunities. Some of the investments are already generating returns such as the Waltersmith Modular Refinery and Nedogas Gas Gathering and Processing Facility.

The achievements we have recorded in the last two years are anchored on the visionary and result-oriented leadership of President Bola Tinubu. Also significant is the tremendous support and cooperation of the Minister of State Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri and the Minister of State Petroleum (Gas), Honourable Ekperikpe Ekpo. We will continue to reinforce and strengthen all important relationships for the good of our industry and the Nigerian economy.

To sustain the momentum, NCDMB will, between May 21 to 22 2025, host the 5th edition of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) to showcase short to medium term plans and activities of operators and project promoters in the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors of the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry. This will give Nigerian service companies ample opportunity to build relevant capacities that might be required to execute the projects in-country, thereby creating employment opportunities, and retaining spend in-country.

Local content represents the best opportunity for Nigeria to obtain tangible and durable benefits from its oil wealth in a rapidly changing world in which carbon may become a less important asset. We will continue to shoulder this responsibility with the seriousness it deserves.

*Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe is the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).