Speaking in Dar es salaam yesterday, the Executive Secretary of the continental Foundation, Prof Emmanuel Nnadozie, said the local content policies and legislations would ensure the local populace are active in the oil and gas value chain.

 

Prof Nnadozie , an economist and development expert, said the legislations and policies would oblige multinational companies in the sector to recruit locally and provide opportunities that build local capacity and skills.

 

Recently, Parliament passed the Petroleum Bill, the Oil and Gas Revenue Management Bill and the Tanzania Extractive Industry (Transparency and Accountability) Bill and the local content policy draft has already been published to seek public final input.

 

Prof Nnadozie said that in oil and gas, such local content policies would help oblige multinationals to transfer technologies to local people. He said management of natural resources needs visionary leadership that needs both investing in human and physical capital.

 

"We need to build institutions that ensure policies are implemented and also ensure local content laws and policies are implemented. You have to ensure that countries from which resources come benefit," he said.

A researcher at the Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) Mr Ian Shangwi said the ACBF had supported the local Think Tank to conduct an important study on Lindi and Mtwara on how well the country can manage the oil and gas resource to ensure it does not fall or the Dutch disease.

 

"We have worked with the Ministry of Energy and Minerals and it is waiting for these findings that we shall release soon," he said.

 

Mr Shangwi said the findings from Lindi and Mtwara would help the Ministry in shaping the local content programmes in the oil and gas sector.

 

It is through, Local Content Policies and legislations that host governments make policies and laws, which require International Oil Companies (IOCs) to maximize the share of local participation in ownership, and in the supply of goods and services across the entire oil and gas chain.

 

In so doing, he argued, the government develops a competitive base for local business community to invest, supply goods, generate income and create employment opportunities.

 

In the light of recent big gas discoveries, the government is coming up with appropriate policies and legal frameworks to guide future exploration and exploitation of the resources.

Source : allafrica.com