A target of 50% by 2030
Local Content Day in the hydrocarbons sector was held on Thursday December 15, 2022 in Dakar, on the initiative of the Technical Secretariat of the National Local Content Monitoring Committee. On this occasion, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Cheikh Niane, highlighted the State’s objective of achieving 50% local content by 2030.
It brought together all the players in the oil and gas sector (government, oil companies, national private sector, civil society, etc.). Objective: to review the ways and means offered by the legal and regulatory framework to enable Senegalese companies to benefit from investment and growth opportunities in the oil and gas sector.
Presiding over the meeting on behalf of Minister Aissatou Sophie GLADIMA, the Ministry’s Secretary General Cheikh NIANE highlighted the State’s support for Senegalese companies, to help them overcome the compliance and governance constraints they often face when operating in the oil and gas sector. Mr. NIANE pointed out that the Government has put in place a whole range of measures to enable Senegalese companies to comply with industry norms and standards, and to build their capacities to “face up to the strong competition in oil and gas activities, with a view to achieving the target of 50% local content by 2030 set by the State of Senegal”. However, it should be noted that the oil industry is notoriously “elitist, requiring a high level of technical expertise that calls for substantial financial resources by way of investment”, he reminded us.
As Mor NDIAYE MBAYE, Technical Secretary of the Comité national de suivi du contenu local (National Local Content Monitoring Committee) explains, the context is marked by a “high number of challenges to be met, notably: the lack of technical and technological capacity among local companies, the shortage of skilled labor, difficulties in submitting tenders, local companies’ unfamiliarity with the norms, requirements and standards required for valid participation in oil and gas activities, and financing difficulties, among others”. In response to all these challenges, the government has set up a system to enable Senegalese companies to meet the sector’s norms and standards, and to strengthen their technical, financial, organizational and managerial capacities.
The E-CNSCL platform guarantees transparency in the procurement of goods and services in the sector. In fact, it is the single, compulsory publication site for all calls for tenders and opportunities relating to hydrocarbon activities. To provide technical, financial and organizational support for companies, the government has set up a one-stop shop, the aim of which is to create a framework for collaboration and exchanges between companies to bring them up to standard. To complete the package, the FADCL, Fonds d’Appui au Développement du Contenu Local (Local Content Development Support Fund) has been set up to provide long-term support for strengthening companies’ technical and financial capacities. According to the ST CNSCL, “if companies take advantage of all these levers, our country will succeed in capturing the 50% local content by 2030, especially as the regimes defined by law allow companies to work in 99% of the activities listed in oil operations”.
