The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board , NCDMB, Simbi Wabote , has called on African Nations seeking to achieve economic prosperity to develop local capabilities, process, utilise and export their resources as a means of powering their growth and development .
This was disclosed in Abuja at the third African Local Content Roundtable with the theme “Enhancing Local Content Development and Deployment in Africa’s Oil and Gas Industry”.
African countries are faced a lot of challenges on the continent .
Seventy percent of households in Sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity and other forms of energy .
The continent has a dwindling economy and most citizens live on the fringes of the poverty line.
Oil producing African countries are not much better off especially with the global focus now on reducing carbon emmissions
The way out of these challenges is for African countries to embrace the use of more local content in production
It is why the “ African Local Content Roundtable “ has been put in place by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board to drive this narrative
The Roundtable is a gathering of delegates from oil producing countries in Africa.
It is an opportunity for Africa’s Oil and Gas sector to reinvent themselves to deliver the much needed commodity in a lower caborn form .
This would ensure the move to green energy will be one potential scenario for the new energy future.
The Executive Secretary , Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board Simbi Wabote, who is also the key note speaker for this event believes developing local continent in Africa should not be restricted to the Oil and Gas sector alone in order to boost the continent’s economy.
The NCDMB is prioritizing research and development and has set up a fifty million dollar research and development fund to support basic research , endowment of professional chairs, development of research centres in universities and commercialization of research findings.
The Board is building eight new oil and gas industrial parks covering Abia,Akwa Ibom Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta , IMO , Edo, and Ondo States with two of them ready for operations by the first quarter of next year
Other Stakeholders and Speakers at this event all agree that; there is an urgent need for Africa to be allowed to use affordable sources of energy mainly oil and gas to change the living conditions of their people.
The group encourage leaders of various African countries to come up with strategies to enhance local content as a national agenda with the accompanying legislation
This would make investors buy into the vision of developing Africa’s economy across all sectors.
