A comparative analysis of local content policies in the North Sea and the Gulf of Guinea regions.

Since their introduction in the North Sea, most resource-rich countries in Africa are introducing or reinforcing local content policies (LCPs) and regulations, to propel socio-economic development. Local content is now a prerequisite for granting an exploration licence to international oil companies (IOCs) and suppliers in the Gulf of Guinea region (GGR). This paper analyses and compares factors of success and impediments in LCPs from two perspectives: the North Sea (Norway, UK, and Denmark), and the Gulf of Guinea (Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Equatorial Guinea). Through this, we glean policy lessons for the Gulf of Guinea countries. The study finds that the policy implementation in the GGR is constrained by inadequate infrastructure, industrial base and supplier base, technical and financial capacity of domestic firms and weak regulatory institutions - among other things. Also, the LCP is overly ambitious and prescriptive, ignoring the GGR's actual state of industrial development. To engineer resource-based development in the GGR, these countries must move beyond their preoccupation with local content regulations and instead address the above challenges in order to facilitate the development of better linkages