Why SMEs should explore Nigerian oil and gas sector

Business Day

3 October 2011

Why SMEs should explore Nigerian oil and gas sector

Tuesday last week at the Federal Place Hotel, Lagos was the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (LCCI) Oil Producers Trade Section’s day, when they gathered to discuss the Nigerian Content Act 2010.

The Act, principally, is aimed at ensuring that substantial proportion of activities, material engineering parts and human capital, utilised in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, are domiciled within the country. It states that the domiciliation should focus on local value addition and promote technology transfer.

Lack of local content has been blamed for high unemployment and linked to militancy in the Niger Delta region.

Nigeria’s efforts in recent years to pass the local content legislation with stringent, ambitious targets and stiff penalties have drawn widespread attention, and prompted numerous international workshops, seminars and symposia on local content.