Lawmakers launch aggressive compliance drive; IOC violations, weak capacity development and abuse of waivers under fresh scrutiny
The Senate Committee on Local Content has issued a stern warning to international oil companies and other operators in the petroleum sector, insisting that companies that violate Nigeria’s local content laws will face unprecedented oversight as the National Assembly begins what it calls a far stricter enforcement regime.
Committee Chairman, Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas, delivered the warning on Tuesday at the 14th Annual Practical Nigerian Content Forum in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. He said Nigeria’s oil and gas industry was experiencing what he described as a “systemic failure” in adhering to local content provisions, despite decades of crude oil production and the presence of strong legal frameworks meant to protect Nigerian participation.
According to him, the Senate has entered “a new phase of local content compliance enforcement”, and the era of weak monitoring is over.
“For years, the laws have been clear. The NOGICD Act, the Nigeria First Policy and Presidential Executive Order No. 5 were created to ensure Nigerians actively participate in, and benefit from, the wealth generated in our economy,” he said. “The mandate was not optional, and the time for half-measures is over.”
Senator Thomas emphasized that while the industry welcomes investors, their activities must not undermine Nigerian jobs, local capacity growth or national economic sovereignty.
“We are moving from paper compliance to real, measurable and verifiable enforcement. Cooperation does not mean compromise. The laws must be obeyed,” he stated.
The committee, he revealed, has already written to international oil companies, local operators and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), demanding full disclosure of their compliance records. He added that any inconsistencies in the documents submitted would prompt immediate summons and potentially investigative hearings.
“We have taken decisive action over the past months. Where we find gaps or red flags, we will summon both operators and regulators. Where investigative hearings are necessary, we will conduct them. Work has commenced, and we will not slow down,” Thomas said.
The senator also announced an ongoing partnership with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) aimed at exposing companies that deliberately undermine local content laws.
“We are working with labour unions to name and shame companies that short-change Nigerians,” he warned.
A major area of concern, he noted, is the persistent abuse of the Human Capital Development (HCD) provisions of the NOGICD Act. The law requires that 1–3 per cent of the value of oil and gas projects above $1 million be invested in capacity development for Nigerians, an obligation he said many companies ignore.
“It is not decorative. It is not aspirational. It is not voluntary,” he stressed.
Despite 65 years of oil exploration and 14 years since the enactment of the NOGICD Act, the senator lamented that Nigeria still lags behind in building local capacity. He disclosed that the committee is currently reviewing Nigerian Content Plans, waivers, and compliance frameworks submitted by operators to identify shortcomings and areas of neglect.
“Wherever negligence exists, we will act. Wherever the law is ignored, we will correct it,” he said, urging Nigerians to use the committee’s reporting channels to flag violations.
Senator Thomas reaffirmed President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to expanding local participation in the economy, asserting that industries cannot blame the government for unemployment while simultaneously sidelining Nigerian workers.
“Never again will jobs meant for our people be outsourced to expatriates,” he declared.
However, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, offered a different perspective at the event, explaining that some waivers are granted because Nigeria still lacks the capacity to execute certain high-tech projects locally.
He noted that some local service providers function merely as intermediaries, winning contracts only to subcontract the work to foreign companies, further inflating production costs.
The minister revealed that the government has appealed to major global engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firms to return to Nigeria. Many of them, he said, left due to past misinterpretations of local content laws.
“They are coming back,” Lokpobiri said, adding that the NCDMB’s survival depends on the existence of active projects. “If there are no projects, NCDMB will die. The management of the board must be enablers of projects.”
He disclosed that the Executive and the National Assembly would hold discussions to harmonize issues surrounding the current local content regulations.
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