Local Content Policies in the Energy Transition Era in Africa: A Case Study of the East African Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

In Sub-Saharan Africa, local content policies have been implemented since the 1970 s, but these policies have not been able to transplant the intentions of the policymakers into practice. Though in the last decade there has been a proliferation of local content policies; the policies have not yielded similar results in developing countries such as Angola and Nigeria compared to other oil and gas countries such as Norway and Brazil. This chapter is an examination of how local content policies have been approached in Norway and Brazil, and what lessons can be drawn for emerging oil and gas producers like Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The chapter undertakes a comparative case study approach between Norway and Brazil, analyzing the nature of the oil and gas industry and the local content model adopted. The case-study intends to find out what is the common denominator for local content policy success in any oil and gas industry. As much, countries like Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania do not have the pre-existing faculties to develop efficient local content policies. The chapter constructs mean for novel channels of creating local content policies that are not mere transplantation of policies from mature developed economies to emerging developing economies but the development of policies while taking into account the peculiar conditions and realities of an emerging oil and gas producer like Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. The chapter also highlights the future of local content policies in the energy transition era.