By Ali Elias
Nigeria must streamline project delivery, strengthen local content, and create a more competitive investment climate if it hopes to scale up energy production and secure long-term industrial growth, Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, has said.
Delivering the keynote address titled “Streamlining Project Delivery for Improved Efficiency” at the Practical Nigerian Content Forum 2026 organised by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Verheijen said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has placed efficient project execution at the heart of its upstream energy reforms.
She applauded the NCDMB for what she described as its “consistent commitment to innovation, boundary-pushing ideas and practical, transformative results,” and affirmed the Presidency’s partnership with the Board in advancing key reforms designed to reposition Nigeria as Africa’s premier oil and gas investment destination.
Presidential Directives Driving Reform
Verheijen recalled that in February 2024, President Tinubu issued Presidential Directives 41 and 42, aimed at eliminating rent-seeking, strengthening local content compliance, slashing contracting costs and timelines, and improving the ease of doing business in the petroleum sector.
“These combined reforms enabled Nigeria to secure three of the four major Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) recorded in Africa in 2024 and moved us into the top quartile of 14 comparable global jurisdictions,” she said.
But she stressed that unlocking Nigeria’s full potential requires coordinated effort across the entire value chain—government, operators, financiers, service providers, and host communities.
“Local content was never meant to be an end in itself,” she cautioned. “It is a means to national outcomes: projects delivered at scale, on schedule, and at competitive cost.”
A Data-Driven Path to true Local Content
Verheijen disclosed that in drafting the new Presidential Directives, the government adopted a data-driven modeling and benchmarking approach to understand how local content requirements influence project costs.
“Our task was to eliminate intermediaries and rent-seeking while preserving the true essence of local content—empowering Nigerian talent, strengthening indigenous enterprise, and building competitive capacity that can serve Africa and the world,” she said.
She urged regulators to “shed legacy mindsets” and evolve into enablers of speed, clarity, and efficiency if the nation is to hit its targets of three million barrels per day of crude oil and 10 billion standard cubic feet per day of gas by 2030.
Local Content Successes and the Work Ahead
The SA to the President highlighted major local content achievements, including SHI-MCI’s fabrication capacity, LADOL’s emergence as a vibrant free zone, modular refinery advances by Waltersmith, and landmark milestones such as:
Egina FPSO, with nearly 55,000 tonnes of in-country fabrication
NLNG Train 7, now showcasing extensive local engineering
Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks Scheme, building manufacturing hubs for key industry inputs
Since the enactment of the NOGICD Act in 2010, she noted, in-country value retention has risen from 5% to 56%, while Nigerian-owned marine vessels servicing the industry increased from below 10% to nearly 50%.
“These are more than statistics,” she said. “They represent livelihoods transformed, skills deepened, enterprises expanded, and communities lifted.”
Stakeholders Echo the Call for Deeper Reforms
Other speakers at the forum reinforced the urgency of reform and local capacity development.
Nasir Alfa Mohammed, Acting CEO, Petroleum Commission of Ghana, said Nigeria’s local content model “has inspired peers across the continent.”
Chairman, House Committee on Local Content, Hon. Boma Goodhead, described the PNC Forum as “a platform for translating policies into action.”
Her Senate counterpart, Sen. Onowakpo Thomas, criticised the slow pace of local capacity development despite the NOGIC Act, citing a recent case in which an expatriate replaced a retiring Nigerian in an IOC role.
“This is not the spirit of the law,” he said, urging stricter enforcement and succession planning.
In his ministerial remarks, Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), outlined pre-existing investment disincentives—multiple levies, excessive regulatory summons, and an unfriendly investment climate—and highlighted the current administration’s work to remove them.
“If we fail to create a conducive environment, investors will move elsewhere, especially as new oil-producing countries emerge across Africa,” he warned.
Other dignitaries, including the Minister of State for Gas, Ekperikpo Ekpo; Minister of State for Industry, Sen. John Owan Enoh; and the Governor of Bayelsa State, Sen. Duoye Diri, also delivered goodwill messages.
A Defining Moment for Nigeria’s Energy Future
Verheijen concluded that Nigeria is entering a new cycle of upstream investment with renewed confidence, following three major FIDs—TotalEnergies’ Ubeta field, Shell’s Bonga North development, and Shell’s HI gas project.
“Nigeria’s energy security is more assured today than at any time in recent years,” she said. “Together, we are laying the foundation for a new era of industrialisation, energy expansion, and shared prosperity.”