Nigeria’s Oil Industry Attracts $60Bn FDI In 12 Years-Wabote

The Executive Secretary, ES, of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Simbi Wabote, has disclosed that Nigeria’s oil and gas sector has attracted over $60 billion Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, following enactment and implementation of the local content Act.

Speaking in an interview on his achievements since being appointed the ES, six years ago, Wabote also revealed that the Board through the implementation of its 10 year strategic roadmap has achieved 47 per cent local content which translates to $7 billion every year.

According to him, “If I just extrapolate in terms of the yearly spend before now in the industry, it is put at $21 billion year-on-year. So, today, we have clawed back $7 billion of industry spend into the country every year.

“A typical example is the Egina project. Egina which is almost $21 billion, majority of the fabrication was done in-country including topside integration, which was never done in Africa.

Egina, he said is the largest FPSO in the country today – 200,000 barrels of oil per day. He said, “That’s huge in terms of its production, and it was integrated here in Nigeria. So, we have clawed back almost $7 billion. Our aim is to get $14 billion into the country with regards to our 70 per cent by 2027, because the truth is, you cannot achieve 100 per cent Local Content. It’s not possible because you also have to depend on a lot of countries in terms of intellectual property rights, and you cannot manufacture everything. So, that 30 per cent we are leaving is for what we get outside. What used to happen was that 95 per cent of everything was done outside this country, and we have been pushing the envelope, and now, we have attracted this much in terms of monetary value and in terms of percentage.”

Making clarifications, he explained that the $7 billion made from 2010 til date is not the Foreign Direct Investment.

“What we have done is that we have retained that $7 billion in the country. What Foreign Direct Investment in the oil and gas industry has attracted for that period is almost over $60 billion. I have mentioned Egina, I have mentioned other projects that are ongoing. But the retention is about $7 billion year-on-year in terms of the $21 billion that you spend in the industry. So, it’s important to differentiate these two things.”

Speaking on what he think is the most strategic for him in the last 6 years, the development of the 10-Year Strategic Road Map was very key.

“That to me is very strategic in the sense that taking over as the executive secretary of NCDMB, I needed to know where the organization was. I needed to ask myself, where do I want to take the organization to in the next 10 years?

He also, mentioned the completion of the Boards head office building, which is a 17-storey floor building as a strategic achievement.

Wabote, recalled that when the Local Content law came into being, the industry took an evaluation of where we were and came to the generalisation that we were at just about five per cent in terms of growing local content in the country.

Today he said, “We pride ourselves that we are about 47 per cent in terms of the growth of local content from when it was enunciated as a policy, it came as a law and up until date.

” In 2016, we found ourselves around 26 per cent in terms of growth, but today, we’re at 47 per cent, which is a significant achievement when you look at the process of local content development, which we always say, is a marathon and not a sprint. It takes time, it takes perseverance, it takes consistency, it takes focus to be able to develop local content in the oil and gas industry, which is highly technical intensive. So, when you give all that and you look at where we’re today, after about 12 years of operating the Act, you would agree with me that we have made substantial progress.”