NCDMB Promotes Local Content and Industrial Growth at Africa Oil Week 2026

Africa Oil Week 2026 in Accra became a platform for a direct appeal: African countries should move beyond owning natural resources and build the industrial power to process, supply and profit from them.

The Africa Local Content Programme, organised with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, the African Union and Ghana’s Petroleum Commission, focused on building African capacity, competitiveness and collaboration across the upstream value chain. NCDMB Executive Secretary Felix Omatsola Ogbe delivered opening remarks on the theme “From Resource Ownership to Industrial Power.” Director of Corporate Services Abdulmalik Halilu represented him.

Halilu said local content frameworks should support the development and use of African cross-border capabilities as part of the continent’s industrialisation. He identified research and technology development, local employment, strategic partnerships, asset ownership and control, supply-chain optimisation, sustainable operations, locally made goods and higher production as elements of a broader local-content strategy.

Other NCDMB officials took part in discussions on technology and policy coordination, market-entry opportunities and investment in Africa’s upstream oil and gas sector. Participants agreed that local content could attract investment and lower operating costs. They also said oil-producing countries needed stable regulations and other measures to draw investment capital.

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Local content frameworks must promote the development and utilization of African cross border capacities for the industrialization of Africa.