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| Former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan |
A former President, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has advised African countries, especially Mozambique, to be transparent.
He also urged them to carry the private sector along in the formulation of their local content laws as a means of making the policy to be more effective and beneficial to the people.
Jonathan spoke at the 4th edition of the Financial Times Mozambique Economic Summit, according to a statement on Thursday.
Jonathan said, “First and foremost, the local content law is not designed to frustrate international investors, especially the international oil companies. If a law frustrates them, then the host country may also lose because it may not have the requisite capacity. The idea is that the law must encourage them, in this case, to deploy people from Mozambique where the capacity is available and also to encourage them to develop capacity.”
He traced the history of power generation in Nigeria to 1896 when a 25 MW plant was built in Lagos. He explained the dynamics of Nigeria’s power sector privatisation.
He added that it was needful to carefully handle such key issues as cost-reflective tariff, regulation, labour as well as credibility and public support for the reform programme.
Jonathan also advised Mozambique to embrace privatisation even as they enjoyed relatively steady power supply and economic growth to perfect the process towards future demands for more power which development would bring.
He also said the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act which came into effect on March 29, 2010, helped to reposition the country for workforce capacity building and sustainable growth.
Jonathan added, “The local content law even took the issue of local capacity building further. The local content policy helps a nation to grow local capacity and utilisation of resources, especially if a board is set up for that purpose.
“If the companies here are resisting the policy, it may have to do with the way the law is being crafted. However, don’t forget that people generally fear the introduction of anything new or different from what they are used to. That is why it is important to carry them along so that they will see that your intentions will be mutually beneficial to your country as well as the investors. They must be properly briefed in a way that will make it clear that the local content law is not to punish or short-change them.
“It should actually form part of their corporate responsibility which requires the activities of the investor to impact positively on the host country and the environment. The local content law only gives a legal backing to that responsibility by ensuring and enforcing compliance. Like I said earlier, if it is designed or implemented like a punitive law, it will discourage investors.”
