AfCFTA Key To Achieve Africa Local Content Strategy – Wabote

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board(NCDMB) has identified the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as one critical legal framework that can be leveraged to achieve the collaborative local content strategy in Africa.

The executive secretary of the board, Simbi Wabote, who spoke on the theme,  ‘Sub-Saharan Africa Local Content Collaboration Strategies,’ at the 7th edition of the Sub Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference(SAIPEC) in Lagos,  stressed that, the main objectives of the strategy are to explore ways to breakdown barriers, promote cross-border collaboration amongst governments and businesses, provide peer review mechanisms, and share experiences and ideas on industry sustainability and growth.

Wabote said, for the strategy to work, there is need to address, Legal Framework, Funding, Infrastructure, Human Capacity Development, and Research and Development.

According to him, the advent of AfCFTA created the world’s largest free trade area by integrating 1.3 billion people across 54 African countries, with the objective of tapping into a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of over $3 trillion.

This, he observed, is indeed a very huge collaboration platform that will present tremendous gains to the entire African continent, adding that, it is in recognition of the enormous opportunities that AfCFTA presents that Nigeria has started working towards unleashing the collaboration potentials.

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He recognised the AfCFTA as the practice of Local Content on the continental level and commended the foresight of the League of African Leaders who adopted AfCFTA in 2012 at the 18th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Speaking on investment in infrastructure, he said, this has a significant impact on the economic growth of any nation.

Wabote cited a study carried out in the year 2020 by GI Hub found that the economic multiplier for public investment (including infrastructure) is one and a half times greater than the initial investment in two to five years, saying, this is much higher than other forms of public spending.

For instance, he said, the Dangote Integrated Refinery and Petrochemical Company – with an installed capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) which is expected to come on stream within the year will afford Nigeria and other African countries the partnership opportunities for sourcing petroleum products and fertilizer.

Also, the recently commissioned Lekki Free Zone and facilities like the SHI-MCI FPSO Fabrication/ Integration in Lagos equally presents opportunities for collaboration for the construction of FPSO and other offshore oil and gas facilities.

“These infrastructures and others that exist in various parts of the African continent provide massive opportunities for cross-border energy collaboration among African countries.

“Similarly, infrastructure like the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) and the ongoing AKK gas transmission infrastructure provides a means for serving regional and African markets.

“The developmental strategies to start from a cluster within a country and grow organically across borders continue to work well in the provision of roads, gas pipelines, fiber-optic cables, railways, and other infrastructure across the continent.” the ES noted.

He told participants at the event that the Nigerian oil and gas industrial parks the Board is developing across seven locations in Nigeria represent one of the ways it is providing infrastructure for the manufacturing of components to serve local and regional markets in a collaborative way.

Wabote, informed the gathering that the APPO has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank) for the creation of an Africa Energy Bank to address the financing challenges of Oil and Gas projects caused by the paradigm shift from fossil energy to renewable energies in the era of the Energy Transition during the 8th African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition (CAPE VIII) held in Luanda, Angola and that the NCDMB is currently supporting APPO on how to make the funds available.

When operational, the Africa Energy Bank will foster the development of major energy projects across Africa, he said.