National Assembly Moves To Amend Local Content, Petroleum Industry Acts

The National Assembly has begun moves to amend sections of the Local Content Act and the Petroleum Industry Act that appear to hinder the ease of doing business in the country.

Senate Minority Whip, Senator Osita Ngwu disclosed this on Thursday while speaking at the opening ceremony of the 9th Africa Energy Summit at Alode, near Onne in Rivers State.

The summit, with the theme: “Emerging Technologies and the Future of Sustainable Energy Development in Africa”, was organised by an indigenous conglomerate, Solewant Group.

Ngwu, who is also the Chairman, Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, stated that the decision to touch on some provisions of the Local Content Act was to accommodate noble participation and growth of the industry.

“Recently, one of us presented a bill on local content. We have, at the committee level, deliberated on it. The bill was specific on automotive industry and someone recommended that we shouldn’t just focus on automotive industry, let us expand it to cover every other aspects of Nigeria’s industries and economy to improve on our local content act.

“That deliberation is done and we are about to start looking at the laws. I will encourage industry players here to make contributions when the time comes, so that we can further strengthen our Local Content Act to accommodate noble participation and industry growth,” he said.

The Senate Minority Whip said the National Assembly has received several complains from major players in the oil and gas industry on some sections of the Petroleum Industry Act that are injurious to their activities.

“The second one is the PIA. It took us decades to be able to get the Petroleum Industry Act on board. Currently, there are complains; of course, there is no act or law that is perfect.

“We have been receiving reports and we have visited some companies like Dangote and several other key players that are affected by the PIA. It is our duty to look at the law and see if there are areas that we can touch to increase the economy and the industry as a whole,” he said.

He encouraged industry players to make inputs when the time comes “so that we can further strengthen our PIA for the good of the Nigerian economy and good of industry that we are all operating in.”

In his welcome remarks, the Group Chief Executive Officer of Solewant Group, Mr. Solomon Ewanehi, expressed regrets that despite the vast resources in Africa, including oil and gas, solar and wind power, many countries in the continent still struggle to provide reliable energy access to their citizens, thereby hindering economic growth and development.

“Africa, with its rapidly growing population and economy, is poised to become a major player in the global energy market. Our continent is blessed with an abundance of natural resources, including oil, gas, solar, and wind power.

“However, despite these vast resources, many African countries struggle to provide reliable energy access to their citizens, hindering economic growth and development,” Ewanehi said.