ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 establishes that petroleum producing countries (PPCs) in Africa are increasingly turning to local content as a means of shoring up the benefits derivable from their petroleum resources, and, for that reason, several of them have drawn up specific local content targets which firms operating in their terrains are required to attain. But why is local content assuming an importance which it never had in prior decades? Can history enable our understanding of the reason why African PPCs are increasingly turning to protectionist local content policies? With special focus on Nigeria, this chapter attempts to evaluate the historical development of local content in the Nigerian petroleum industry, as well as factors which gave rise to a weak local content in that country in order appreciate why the country turned to a strict protectionist local content legislation.
