Nigerian content rises to 61% from five per cent
CHIGOZIE AMADI
Nigeria’s level of local content in the oil and gas industry has risen to 61 per cent from five per cent recorded when the Nigerian Content Act was passed in 2010, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has said.
The NCDMB, however, said the next frontier was to make Nigerian companies competitive enough to operate beyond the domestic market and export their capabilities globally.
The General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, who represented the board’s Chief Executive Officer at the 2026 NAEC Energy Conference of the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) in Lagos, said the board’s initiatives were designed to expand Nigerians’ access to opportunities and assets in the oil and gas industry.
He said the Nigerian Content Act was fundamentally about creating access for Nigerians to participate in the industry through capacity development, funding, regulation, collaboration, and research and development.
According to him, the board established the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund in 2017 to increase the capacity of Nigerian companies and improve their ability to participate in the industry.
He said the board had also introduced initiatives to support Nigerian companies in developing and manufacturing equipment locally, while capacity development programmes had trained more than 10,000 Nigerians in critical skills over the past 15 years.
He said the board had also launched a 10-task skills initiative to prepare young Nigerians for skills required by emerging investments in the oil and gas industry.
He said 17,000 Nigerians had registered on the platform launched for the initiative, with dedicated training being provided in the identified fields.
Ogbe said research and development was another critical component of developing local capacity, arguing that dependence on research and development from other countries could limit Nigerians’ ability to participate fully in the industry.
He also said the board was working to facilitate collaboration between Nigerian service companies and their foreign counterparts and promote regional expansion of Nigerian companies across Africa.
According to him, the board had begun efforts to create new markets for Nigerian companies by engaging with other African countries on local content and capacity development.
He said the increase in local content meant that the industry had reached a point where the focus should move beyond participation in Nigeria to competitiveness across international markets.
“It is not enough to have the capacity to operate in Nigeria, it is not enough to have Nigerian content and products,” he said.
“Going forward, we are asking Nigerian companies to be competitive, to be able to operate across the globe. And that is the next frontier.”
He said Nigerian companies needed to develop the agility, capacity, skills and potential required to compete internationally and export their capabilities.
He said the NCDMB would continue to support the Nigerian content agenda and efforts to expand Nigerians’ access to opportunities in the oil and gas industry.
