The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has said that its 10-year strategic roadmap was designed to strengthen Nigeria’s industrial base by retaining 70 per cent of oil and gas industry spending within the country by 2027, while creating employment opportunities for about 300,000 Nigerians across the oil and gas value chain and its linkage sectors.
This position was made known during a high-level panel session at the maiden West Africa Industrialisation, Manufacturing and Trade Summit and Exhibition, held in Lagos under the theme “Accelerating West Africa’s Sustainable Industrial Revolution for Economic Prosperity”.
The session focused on maximising human capital as a catalyst for competitive and resilient industries in the region.
Speaking on behalf of the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the General Manager, Human Capacity Development, Mr. Esueme Kikile, congratulated the organisers for convening the summit, noting that “the theme strongly aligns with the Board’s long-standing mandate in the oil and gas sector.”
He explained that NCDMB’s core responsibility is to build the capacity of Nigerians and Nigerian companies to participate actively in the oil and gas industry, stressing that industrialisation, manufacturing and trade were critical drivers of sustainable economic growth.
To achieve this, Kikile said the Board launched a 10-year strategic roadmap in 2017 aimed at developing in-country fabrication and integration capacity, while strengthening local manufacturing capabilities.
According to him, the oil and gas industry alone is capital-intensive and limited in direct employment, but its linkage sectors provide vast opportunities to absorb Nigeria’s growing youth population.
“Our plan is to ensure that at least 70 per cent of Nigerian oil and gas spend is domiciled in-country by 2027. That is why fabrication, manufacturing and industrialisation are so critical. Through this approach, we project employment opportunities for about 300,000 Nigerians, not just in oil and gas, but across its supporting industries,” he said.
Moderating the panel, the Head of Operations at Jobberman Nigeria, Ms Samantha Ifezulike, set the tone by raising concerns about whether West Africa has sufficient human capital to sustain rapid industrial scale-up, both at entry and senior levels. She challenged the panelists to examine barriers to talent deployment and the role of collaboration between industry and government.
In response, Kikile described West Africa’s population of over 450 million people, nearly 60 per cent of whom are young, “as a significant demographic advantage that remains largely untapped due to structural constraints.”
He identified policy fragmentation across borders as a major barrier, and noted that limited mobility of skills within the sub-region restricted optimal use of available talent.
He also pointed to the disconnect between academia and industry, observing that many education systems still prepared graduates for civil service roles rather than practical, industry-driven careers.
He called for deeper collaboration between universities and industry to align curricula with real-world needs, including technology-driven and hands-on training.
On technical and vocational education, Kikile stressed the need to revive and modernise training institutions to meet the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, recalling how vocational pipelines once fed directly into industrial and oil and gas hubs.
He further advocated policies that enabled innovation and entrepreneurship, allowing students to translate viable ideas into businesses, supported by streamlined regulatory frameworks.
Highlighting the NCDMB’s role in talent development, Kikile said human capacity development was central to the Board’s mandate, especially in correcting decades of overreliance on expatriate labour in the oil and gas industry. He noted that the steady growth of indigenous companies over the years reflected the impact of Nigeria’s local content policy.
He said the NCDMB was implementing an Oil and Gas Field Readiness Programme designed to train 10,000 young Nigerians in critical skill areas identified through industry studies, addressing significant skill gaps in the sector. The programme combines classroom learning with compulsory six-month on-the-job training to ensure participants are truly industry-ready.
“We rolled out this programme recently and are already working with operating companies. The goal is not just certification, but field-ready talent. Properly trained Nigerians should be able to compete locally and globally as industry leaders,” he said.
Kikile concluded by emphasising three priorities: strengthening regional capacity and absorptive ability, ensuring industry actively co-creates curricula with government, and enforcing compliance with well-designed policies and regulations.
Wrapping up the session, Ifezulike underscored the need for stronger alliances, effective policy development and practical implementation, calling for broader stakeholder participation to translate discussions into measurable outcomes.
The industry leadership panel reinforced the growing recognition that unlocking West Africa’s human capital is essential to achieving sustainable industrialisation, trade expansion and long-term socio-economic transformation across the region.
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