Invest in local content to achieve sustainable energy future —  Wabote

By Ibiyemi Mathew

The Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr Simbi Wabote has encouraged stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to invest in local content to achieve sustainable energy in Nigeria.

Delivery a keynote on “Local content investment and sustainable energy future” at the final session of the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) 2023 conference, he  acknowledged that Nigeria has tremendous opportunities to leverage its resources and technology toward promoting sustainable energy future and economic growth.

Speaking further, Wabote noted that “the energy trilema has brought to the fore the need for every nation to leverage its own comparative cost advantage by developing the energy resource that it has relative to abundance.

“Most countries including Nigeria have a mix of this resources and they just apply local content to realize sustainable energy future.

“Let’s take the case of Niegria as an example we have oil and gas, hydro, coal and solar as the component of our energy mix.

“We have local content investment in production of crude oil but our investment in local refinery does not exist. This means that we are not able to refine what we need. This leads to a situation where the entire business model is not sustainable,” he said.

Speaking further, he said, “It is of great delight that the world now recognizes the trilema that we face in our quest to meet pur energy needs. It is not a one size fits all as the energy solution to a locality leads to affordable, reliable and sustainable.

“One sure way to strike the balance in the trilema we face is local content development.

“Achieving the right balance will require investment especially in local content. The global trend gives credence to our message and energy transition as a form of local content.”

Wabote also buttressed on the need to embrace local content by recalling that the last 3 editions of the summit witnessed various push for energy transitions with various speakers providing perspective on the subject and how the continental African should respond to the challenges.

He however, referenced one of the speakers who spoke at the opening ceremony who was of the opinion that the name change from Nigeria International Petroleum Summit to Nigeria International Energy summit was not a right step.

Wabote said, “If we continue to follow the bandwagon effect on anything that comes our way, then we will need to ask ourselves if we will infact lead our own change if at every point in time we don’t strive to be different.”