For speakers at the roundtable on "African Local Content: Policy Review and Progress in the Implementation of Local Content in Africa", the empowerment of local content in Africa must also involve the creation of a regional market.
According to Rui Passos, representative of ExxonMobil, Africa has a "great opportunity" to invest in its local content, "with effort, commitment and funding", noting that local content "is business and not corporate social responsibility".
Alcides Andrade, director of strategic planning at ANPG - National Agency for Oil, Gas and Biofuels, assured that "Angola is ready" to develop its local content, mainly due to the various equipment built by the sector.
"The challenges are many, we need to continue to evolve from a technological point of view and continue to walk the path towards financial autonomy", he said.
Experiences from Algeria in the field of the topic under discussion were presented at the meeting by the director general of Algerian oil company Sonotrach, Mohamed Daound, defending regional integration and the maximization of national production in the value chain.
The encouragement of public-private partnerships and the elaboration of policies for the development of local content are actions "already implemented in Algeria and which have had positive results", he stressed.
The need to create a regional market with a view to leveraging African local content was defended by Simbi Wabote, executive secretary of Nigeria's local content development department, the largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.
"Access to finance will be fundamental. Do we have the capacity to manage services and equipment in the sector?", asked the Nigerian manager, who moderated the debate.
And the president of the company Brimont, a service provider in the oil sector in Angola, Francisco Monteiro, pointed out the "monitoring of good laws" as challenges for local content, especially in Angola, where it has embarked on the path of protectionism.
"That still sets some barriers and the qualification process is difficult", criticized the businessman.
The roundtable on African local content took place on the second working day of the 8th edition of the African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition (CAPE), promoted in Luanda by the African Organization of Petroleum Producing Countries (APPO, in English acronym), which started on Monday and runs until Thursday.
