African nations must collaborate to develop oil industry – ES NCDMB

Close partnership and collaboration among African oil and gas producing countries are some of the strategies that would enable sustainable development of Africa’s oil industry, according to discussants at the Africa Content Forum, a segment at the 2025 Africa Oil Week holding in Accra, Ghana.

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe delivered the keynote address at the forum. Represented by the Director Corporate Services, Dr. Abdulmalik Halilu, the Executive Secretary pointed out that no single African country can fully develop its local content potentials and support her the oil and gas industry without the collaboration of other nations, hence the need for close partnership with other nations.

He pointed out that the Africa continent holds more than 10 percent of global crude oil reserves and eight percent of proven natural gas resources, and is also host to critical resources for renewable energy.

He argued that the continent’s oil and gas wealth must fuel intra-country trade, industrialization, value retention and prosperity, rueing the current situation where many African countries export raw materials to more developed countries across the globe, whereas there is minimal inter-country trade within the continent.