A Critical Appraisal of Enforcement of Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, 2010

Abstract

Nigeria is abundantly endowed with mineral and human resources, and is reputed to be the seventh largest oil producing country in the whole world. Despite the huge investments made by Nigerian government in oil and gas sector, an average of $10 billion per annum, the contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is minimal an average of less than 30%. This abysmal contribution of oil and gas sector is often attributed to the high foreign content and low inputs by Nigerian firms or low local participation in the sector resulting to huge capital flight. Despite the introduction of local content policy since 2006 and enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act in 2010, Nigerians have very little share of oil and gas business over the years just about 14%. The thrusts of this study therefore is that the inability of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the previous regulatory agencies to bridge capacity gap hinders oil and gas multinationals from complying with the Nigerian content directives.

Keywords: Local content, Nigeria, oil and gas, NNPC, oil multinationals, rentierism