Stakeholders Seek Home-Grown Solutions To Africa’s Oil, Gas Problems 

Key stakeholders and policy makers in Africa’s oil and gas and other related sectors have stressed the need for the continent to look within for solutions to its problems in the face of global economic challenges.
The stakeholders made the call at the Third Edition of the African Local Content Roundtable  themed “Fostering Local Content In Africa for Africans”, in Abuja.
The stakeholders unanimously agreed that the concept of local content is not merely a policy, but a catalyst for transformation.
A Statement signed by the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, weekend, noted that one of the greatest challenges bedevilling the African oil and gas industry is local manufacturing of components.
“90 per cent, if not more, of the equipment that we use are imported because we’ve not focused on how to manufacture some of the components in-country”, he said.
While stating that “the importance of developing homegrown cost-effective affordable and scalable solutions to address local challenges cannot be overemphasised”, Wabote identified prioritisation of research and development as well as funding as key to delivering local content goals on the continent.
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 funding challenges of oil and gas producing countries.
“The time for change is now and it is our collective responsibility to usher in a new era of local content development and implementation in Africa’s oil and gas industry. The NCDMB stands as a key advocate In local content development, not just in Nigeria, but Africa as a whole”, he said.
On his part, the Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organization, Omar Farouk, lamented that Africa has continued to be dependent on foreign oil and gas technologies despite being in the oil prodcuing business for years and making billions from oil and gas projects.
He said, “We have sadly been conditioned to believe that such dependency is normal. More alarming is the fact that the African continent has the highest proportion of its population living in energy poverty with over 600 million Africans living without access to electricity and millions of others living without any access to modern energy, 70% of the oil we produce is exported. 70% of the gas is also exported.
“Africa must be allowed to use its affordable and readily available source of energy mainly oil and gas. Today’s developed countries used it to get to where they are today, we must be allowed to also use it to lift the living conditions of our people and get them out of poverty”.
Also speaking, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, described the theme of the Roundtable as appropriate, saying “there is need for Africa to evolve from not just supplying raw materials, but developing capacity and capability to explore, produce and process its hydrocarbons resources into petroleum derivatives for its own use”.