In December 2019, the National Assembly proposed a bill to repeal the subsisting Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act (NOGICDA), 2010, and replace it with the Nigerian Local Content Development and Enforcement Commission Bill (“the Bill”), 2020. The Bill seeks to “establish the Nigerian Local Content Development Commission and provide for comprehensive framework, structures, programmes, and schemes for the institutionalization and strengthening of Nigerian local content in all sectors of the Nigerian economy for self-sufficiency, job creation, international competitiveness of Nigerian domestic businesses and economic diversification and for matters connected therewith.”

In furtherance of our commitment to thought leadership on key industry issues, we have provided below, a summary of the key provisions of the Bill and our commentaries thereon.

1. Expansion of the scope of Nigerian Content (NC) to other sectors

The Bill, in its current form, seeks to extend the NC philosophy to operations and transactions in all areas of the Nigerian economy, particularly, in the petroleum, solid minerals mining, construction, power, information and communications technology (ICT), manufacturing and health sectors. This extension may not be unconnected to the relative success of the NOGICDA in the oil and gas sector, leading to the emergence of Nigerian companies playing significant roles in all key segments of the industry.

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