The National Press Centre, Radio House, Abuja, came alive with intellectual panache recently when a book titled: “Lessons from the Implementation of Local Content and Value Addition in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry” was presented to the reading public amid kudos.
A team of socioeconomic experts, policy makers, stakeholders as well as guests from different walks of life unveiled the book with a thunderous ovation.
The author, Dr Aliyu Ahmed Hameed, said the book was published to showcase the very important lessons that the Nigerian oil and gas local content offers for the larger Nigerian economy as well as the fulfilment of national development aspirations.
He explained that local content referred to self reliance and had to do with “doing things yourself, growing domestic capacity as well as productivity.”
While emphasizing the relevance of local content to economic growth and national development, he noted: “The Nigerian content momentum underscores what we can do, what opportunities abound and why we must adopt the lessons of local content as a mantra to guide our national development blueprints and initiatives in all sectors.”
“We must promote and extend this culture to every sector – from agriculture to manufacturing, communication, technology etc. We must spread the message that there is value in doing things ourselves.”
Abdulmalik Halilu, the discussant, who shed light on the thrust of the book said: “I recommend it for students, policy makers and subject matter experts. Development partners, too, need to see the book so that they can understand how Nigeria is responding to the need to create employment from local content programmes.”
