NCDMB Seeks Unified African Local Content Framework to Unlock $ Continent’s Industrial Potential
By Pan Afric Reporters
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has called for stronger Pan-African collaboration, regulatory harmonisation and cross-border business partnerships to unlock Africa’s vast local content potential and accelerate economic diversification and industrial development across the continent’s oil and gas industry.
The position was contained in a press release issued by the Corporate Communication Division of the NCDMB on August 26, 2026, following a strategic engagement in Windhoek, Namibia, on African Local Content Opportunities and cross-border partnerships. Representing the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, Dr. Abdulmalik Halilu said African countries must leverage existing capabilities, harmonise local content policies and forge strategic partnerships among indigenous businesses to retain more value within the continent.
Speaking on the theme, “African Local Content Opportunities: Pathway to Economic Diversification and Development,” Halilu noted that several African countries had established legal and regulatory frameworks for local content, providing a foundation for deeper regional integration and industrial cooperation. He referenced the 2025 APPO Ministerial Council Brazzaville Declaration, which calls for stronger supplier capacity, skills development, knowledge transfer, joint ventures, harmonised local content regulations and public-private partnerships to increase African participation in the oil and gas industry.
Halilu also highlighted Africa’s existing capabilities in fabrication, engineering, manufacturing, subsea services, marine operations and project execution, stressing that these capacities could be deployed more effectively through strategic collaboration among African companies and institutions. Drawing from Nigeria’s experience under the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, he said data-driven implementation, compliance monitoring, supplier development and strategic investments had significantly strengthened local participation and improved industry competitiveness.
According to him, practical business-to-business partnerships—including prime-subcontractor arrangements, incorporated local content joint ventures, contractual consortium bids and reciprocal market-access alliances—would be critical to enabling African companies to jointly pursue major energy projects. He further called for coordinated action on regulatory harmonisation, trade facilitation, customs cooperation, immigration reforms and sustainable financing, while endorsing the creation of a Pan-African supplier database and interactive opportunities platform to showcase African capabilities.
“The opportunities available across Africa can only be fully unlocked through deliberate and synchronized efforts that enable cross-border service delivery and industrial collaboration,” Halilu stated, adding that the Brazzaville Declaration was an important starting point, but implementation, partnership and policy alignment would determine the success of Pan-African local content. The NCDMB also reaffirmed the importance of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), while Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Mr. Esueme Dan Kikile, Esq., shared perspectives on global best practices and supplier development during the 2026 Namibian Oil and Gas Conference, where Namibia’s Vice President, Mrs. Lucia Witbooi, also visited the NCDMB exhibition stand and received an overview of Nigeria’s local content experience and the transformative impact of the NOGICD Act.
