Sixteen years after Nigerian Content Act, questions mount over industrial capacity gains

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Sixteen years after Nigeria enacted the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, industry leaders are set to ...

Sixteen years after Nigeria enacted the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, industry leaders are set to examine whether the policy has translated into lasting industrial capacity, indigenous ownership and globally competitive businesses, beyond the local participation percentages recorded in oil and gas contracts.

The debate will take centre stage at the 15th Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) Forum 2026, which opens on November 30 with a closed-door Local Content Roundtable at the Nigerian Content Tower in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

The roundtable, themed ‘Building Sustainable Local Capacity: Scaling Capability, Enabling Ownership and Funding Growth’, will bring together lawmakers, regulators and private sector leaders to assess the physical, technological and intellectual capacity Nigeria has developed since 2010 and whether indigenous businesses can sustain operations beyond individual projects.

A central question is whether investments by oil and gas operators in training, certification, supplier development and technology transfer have created industrial assets that can support long-term economic growth, or whether much of the capacity developed remains tied to individual contracts and project requirements.

The discussions will also examine how much sustainable local capacity costs, who should finance it and what infrastructure, technology and expertise should remain within Nigeria after major projects are completed.

“Every year at PNC, we celebrate the percentage. This year, we wanted a room that explores what that percentage is made of, and how we build on it,” said Wemimo Oyelana, Portfolio and country director, dmg events.

Oyelana said the skills, technology and industrial capacity developed through projects over the past 16 years represent assets that need to be sustained, measured and expanded.

The roundtable is expected to explore how Nigeria can move beyond measuring local content performance through participation levels to assessing…

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