The Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2020 (SB 420) passed second reading in the Senate at its plenary session of Wednesday, 10 June 2020. The Bill seeks to provide for a comprehensive framework, structures, programmes and schemes for the institutionalisation and strengthening of Nigerian Local Content in all sectors of the economy for the purpose of job creation, international competitiveness and economic diversification.
Leading the debate on the Bill, Sen. Aliyu Abdullahi Sabi (APC: Niger) informed lawmakers that the Bill, which contains 209 clauses, allows for more comprehensive and inclusive provisions that address the local content needs of all sectors of the Nigerian economy; promote inter-sector synergies; upgrade the existing Nigerian Content Monitoring Board (NCMB) to a Local Content Commission that would boost the diversification efforts of the Federal Government.
Sen. Sabi shared the objectives and highlights of the contents of the Bill in his submissions at plenary, which include the following:
- Ensuring the application of Local Content principles to transactions in all sectors of the Nigerian economy;
- Developing local capacities in the value chain of all sectors of the Nigerian economy;
- Strengthening international competitiveness of businesses;
- Providing robust and transparent monitoring and reporting systems to ensure delivery of Nigerian Content Policies; and
- Supervising and coordinating the implementation and monitoring of Nigerian Content Development.
Others are:
- Imposing the application of Nigerian Local Content to any transaction in which public funds belonging to the Federal Government or its agencies are used in any sector of the economy;
- Imposing Nigerian Local Content to transactions in all sectors of the economy where regulated activities are carried out;
- Giving preference to goods and services produced in Nigeria;
- Local refinement of crude oil and gas utilisation including the formalisation of artisanal petroleum refiners in Nigeria;
- Providing special credit guarantee scheme for the construction of modular refineries, acquisition of equipment to produce goods for import substitution in the country.
Sen. Sabi noted that the bill, if passed, will promote economic development and provide a comprehensive framework for local content development in Nigeria. The Bill has been referred to the Committee on Local Content for further legislative scrutiny.
