By  Engr. Chief Victor U. Georgeson , PhD, (FNIPeTE) (B.Eng, M.Eng, M.Sc, MNSE, MSPE,MNAEE, MIAEE) NUPRC.

Walk into any major oil and gas meeting in Abuja or Port Harcourt today and you will hear the same number: 61%. That is the share of Nigerian content in monitored projects in 2025, up from less than 5% before the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act of 2010. Indigenous firms now own assets, provide services and execute projects across the value chain; the number of upstream operating companies has risen from under 10 to 117; and fabrication yards, engineering firms and manufacturers have multiplied.

This is a genuine success story. But success can become a trap if it breeds complacency. The next phase of local content must move beyond “Nigerian participation in oil projects” to “Nigerian ownership of the oil and gas industrial value chain.” That means building an industrial economy around equipment manufacturing, fabrication, valves and instrumentation, subsea technology, drilling equipment, chemicals, pipelines, digital oilfield technologies, engineering software and specialist technical services.

What 61% really means—and what it does not

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) reports that local participation has climbed from under 5% in 2010 to 61% in 2025, with over $20 billion in in-country investments and more than 50,000 jobs created across the value chain. In engineering and fabrication, local content is already around 80%. On NLNG Train 7, Nigerian firms fabricated pressure vessels, structural steel, valves, pipes, cables and lighting systems; on Deepwater projects, global OEMs are partnering with local service companies to deliver wellhead, tubular and subsea solutions in-country.

Yet the same officials who celebrate these gains are blunt about the gaps. Many local manufacturers still operate below capacity—fabrication facilities at about 32% utilization—because of limited market access, inadequate technology and financing constraints. Technical skills shortages and continued dependence on imported equipment remain major bottlenecks. In other words, Nigeria has built participation, but not yet a self-sustaining industrial ecosystem.

From participation to ownership: the industrial value chain

The NCDMB’s own messaging is clear: “The next phase of local content growth must go beyond participation and compliance. It must focus on capacity expansion, industrialization, manufacturing, sustainability and global competitiveness.” That is a shift from counting Nigerian names on vendor lists to building Nigerian-owned capabilities that design, make and service critical oil and gas technologies.

Concretely, the next decade should target:

• Equipment manufacturing: Local production of pumps, compressors, turbines, heat exchangers and wellhead equipment, not just assembly.
• Fabrication and yards: Expand offshore and onshore fabrication capacity, as seen with new yards in Onne and the growth of FPSO integration capabilities.
• Valves and instrumentation: Move from importing finished valves and control systems to local manufacturing, testing and certification, building on Train 7 experience.
• Subsea technology: Deepen in-country engineering, fabrication and testing of subsea trees, manifolds and control systems, as TechnipFMC has begun with in-country built and tested subsea equipment.
• Drilling equipment: Localize drill pipes, blowout preventers, mud systems and associated services, leveraging the rise to 117 upstream operators.
• Chemicals and specialty products: Develop local production of drilling chemicals, corrosion inhibitors and specialty products, reducing import dependence.
• Pipelines and components: Expand local manufacturing of line pipes, fittings and associated components to feed projects like AKK, OB3 and future gas networks.
• Digital oilfield technologies: Encourage Nigerian startups and firms to develop proprietary software for reservoir management, production monitoring, predictive maintenance and logistics—what some now call “Local Content 2.0” focused on intellectual labour, not just physical labour.
• Engineering software and specialist services: Build capacity in simulation, design, data analytics, AI-enabled operations and niche technical services that command high margins and are exportable.

The enablers: finance, technology, R&D and policy

Nigeria already has some of the pieces. The NCDMB and Bank of Industry have launched a $100 million Nigerian Content Equity Fund to ease financing for indigenous companies, with a new compliance certificate enforcing the mandatory 1% remittance to the Nigerian Content Development Fund from January 2026. The Board has also opened a Research, Innovation and Technology Challenge to fund homegrown solutions and reduce reliance on foreign technology. Ministers have outlined four strategic imperatives: strengthening indigenous capability, accelerating technology transfer and industrial upgrading, expanding high-quality employment, and deepening in-country value creation and ownership.

But the scale must match the ambition:

• Finance at scale: The $100 million equity fund is a start, but indigenous manufacturers need patient capital for plant, tooling, certification and working capital. Finance must reward long-term value creation, not short-term rent-seeking.
• Technology transfer with teeth: Local content rules should require genuine technology transfer, joint ventures with clear localisation roadmaps, and training commitments, not just local staffing.
• R&D and commercialization: Support applied research in materials, subsea systems, digital oilfield tools and chemicals, with pathways to pilot, certify and deploy in real projects.
• Market access and project pipeline: Many fabrication yards operate at 32% capacity because there are not enough projects. Accelerating field development, gas infrastructure and refining/petrochemical projects is itself a local content strategy.
• Regional integration: African leaders are calling for stronger cross-border alliances to build regional industrial capacity, allowing Nigerian manufacturers to serve wider markets and achieve scale.

The provocative question: will Nigeria own the value chain or just staff it?

Local content has enabled significant growth in operating companies, service companies, fabrication yards, engineering firms and manufacturers, lifting Nigerian participation from less than 5% to 61%. But the next question is harder: will Nigeria own the intellectual property, the manufacturing lines, the software and the specialist services that define the high-value segments of the oil and gas industry? Or will it remain a market where Nigerians provide labour and some fabrication, while the core technologies, equipment and margins stay abroad?

The NCDMB’s target of 70% local content by 2027 is meaningful, but the real metric is not percentage points; it is how much of the oil and gas industrial value chain is designed, made and serviced by Nigerian-owned firms. That is what turns local content from a compliance exercise into an industrial economy.

The bottom line: from success story to industrial power

Local content has been one of Nigeria’s most successful economic policies in the last 15 years. It has created firms, jobs and capabilities that did not exist before 2010. But success is not an endpoint. The country now has a choice: treat local content as a box-ticking regime, or use it as the foundation for an oil and gas industrial economy that manufactures equipment, builds subsea systems, writes engineering software, produces chemicals and exports specialist services.

The shift from “Nigerian participation” to “Nigerian ownership” is not rhetorical; it is the difference between a service sector and an industrial powerhouse. If Nigeria gets this next phase right, local content will be remembered not just as a policy that raised a percentage, but as the engine that built a truly Nigerian oil and gas industrial economy

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