NCDMB’s Ezeobi Unveils Book on Local Content, Communication

Peter Uzoho 

As stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry gear up to mark 15 years of the enactment and implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, a new book that captures some of the thrills and highlights of the local content policy has been unveiled to the reading public.

 Titled, “Nigeria’s Local Content: A Journey of Strategic Communication and Economic Transformation,” and written by Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, a management staff at Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), the book provides a detailed account of how deft communication initiatives, skillful stakeholders management strategies and effective collaboration among key players in the oil sector played pivotal roles in propagating and advancing Nigeria’s local content policy, making it a national agenda, and influencing several countries across the African continent.

Written in fast-paced and easy to access vocabularies, the book, sighted by THISDAY, was endorsed by notable personalities in the Nigerian and African energy sector, including the pioneer Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Dr. Ernest Nwapa, who penned a riveting foreword for the book. 

Another notable endorsement that appeared on the book’s blurb was from the Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, who recommended the publication to policy makers and local content enthusiasts across the continent and beyond. 

Similarly, the Chairman of Oildata Group and former Chairman of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), Emeka Ene, lauded the work for chronicling some of the local content success stories, while mentioning how advocacy and stakeholder management played important roles in Nigeria’s local content journey.

Receiving a copy of the book on Monday in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Felix Ogbe, commended the author for his efforts in documenting and projecting the local content story.

 He particularly lauded the aesthetics and quality of the book, pledging that the Board would procure copies.

The book has 267 pages, split in five parts, with each section focusing on different but related themes such as the evolution of oil and gas industry and local content, as well as contemporary issues like impact of oil companies’ divestments and Presidential Directives on local content development.