The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr Simbi Wabote, has disclosed that over 90 per cent of equipment used in the African oil and gas industry is imported.
Wabote disclosed this at the third edition of the African Local Content Roundtable held in Abuja between October 25 and 26, 2023.
Speaking on the theme ‘Fostering Local Content In Africa for Africans’, Wabote said local components manufacturing is the major challenge bedevilling the African oil and gas industry.
As a solution, he called for robust engagements on quality service and equipment manufacturing, cross-border partnerships, intensive out-of-the-box thinking and improvement of funding sources or leveraging additional funding sources to overcome the challenges facing African oil and gas-producing countries.
“90 per cent, if not more, of the equipment we use are imported because we’ve not focused on manufacturing some components in-country.
“The importance of developing homegrown cost-effective, affordable and scalable solutions to address local challenges cannot be overemphasized”, he stated.
On his part, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, expressed that the theme of this year’s Roundtable discussion was appropriate.
“The topic is very appropriate for Africa to evolve from not just supplying raw materials, but developing capacity and capability to explore, produce and process its hydrocarbon resources into petroleum derivatives for its use.”
Similarly, the Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) Omar Farouk, lamented that Africa has continued to depend on foreign oil and gas technologies despite being in the oil-producing business for nearly 100 years and making billions in revenue.
“We have sadly been conditioned to believe that such dependency is normal. More alarming is that the African continent has the highest proportion of its population living in energy poverty, with over 600 million Africans living without electricity and millions of others living without any access to modern energy. 70 per cent of the oil we produce is exported. 70 per cent of the gas is also exported,” he stated.
