The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) have recommitted their partnership towards establishing African centres of excellence in local content development.

Both organisations also encouraged African petroleum producing countries to develop specialised capacities in core oil and gas services and patronise one another in their respective areas of expertise.

These were the discussions during the visit by the Secretary General of APPO, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim to the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, at the agency’s liaison office in Abuja.

The APPO scribe reiterated the organisation’s proposal to partner NCDMB towards establishing centres of excellence in key aspects of the oil and gas industry.

He stated that NCDMB’s oil and gas parks would serve as centres of excellence, and accommodate original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and investors from other African oil producing countries.

Similar centres would be established in other African countries. Some firms had approached APPO to indicate interest to invest in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, particularly in the oil and gas parks, he added.

He said it was imperative for African oil producing countries to collaborate closely, since none of them had sufficient technical and financial capacity to operate independently, whereas close collaboration will actualise the noble objectives of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

He also invited NCDMB to partner and participate in the 4th African Local Content Roundtable (ALCR), planned to hold in Congo, to be hosted by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons of the Republic of Congo.

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary NCDMB reeled out the Board’s strategic support to other African petroleum nations, including the memorandum of agreement (MoU) on collaboration it signed with the Petroleum Commission Ghana, in 2024, and with the Senegalese’s National Local Content Monitoring Committee in 2023, as well as capacity building workshops it organised for other African oil producing countries.

The board is equally projecting and showcasing the capacities of established Nigerian oil and gas service companies to other African nations, opening new vista of opportunities for them in those markets.