As Africa’s energy markets mature, the imperative to strengthen local capacity and deepen value creation is more pressing than ever. At the upcoming African Energy Week (AEW) 2025: Invest in African Energies in Cape Town, a high-level Local Content Roundtable on “Driving Local Value and Maximizing Stakeholder Returns” will convene policymakers, industry leaders and development experts for a focused discussion on the practical tools and strategies shaping Africa’s local content landscape.
Sponsored by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), this session underscores the critical role that local content plays in ensuring sustainable development across the continent’s key energy-producing nations. It will explore how companies and governments alike are embedding workforce development, supplier growth and community inclusion into their business models – turning policy into measurable impact.
The roundtable will be moderated by Hamlet Morule, Executive Head of Communications & External Affairs at bp Southern Africa. Joining him is a distinguished panel of experts from across the value chain: Abdulmalik Halilu, Director of Corporate Services at NCDMB; Stuart Gregg, Operations Director at Petrofac; Tony Paul, Energy and In-Country Value-Addition Advisor at Future Energy Partners; Bradford Donohue, CEO of International Human Resources Development Corporation (IHRDC); and Jorge de Morais, General Manager at KAESO Energy Services.
With a focus on Angola, Nigeria and South Africa, the roundtable will dissect both the hurdles and breakthroughs shaping local content implementation. From skills shortages and fragmented SME ecosystems to regulatory inconsistencies, the session aims to confront the root challenges head-on. Through comparative analysis of local content legislation – Nigeria’s pioneering Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, Angola’s evolving Local Content Law and South Africa’s Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment framework – the discussion will highlight not only the gaps but also the innovative approaches that are delivering results.
“As AEW 2025 sets the stage for investment and policy innovation, the Local Content Roundtable will provide essential guidance on how Africa’s energy sector can evolve from extraction to inclusion, ensuring that the continent’s resource wealth translates into long-term prosperity for its people,” says NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber.
Africa Fact: Africans were the first to engage in mining 43,000 years ago. In 1964 a hematite mine was found in Swaziland at Bomvu Ridge in the Ngwenya mountain range. Ultimately 300,000 artefacts were recovered including thousands of stone-made mining tools. Adrian Boshier, one of the archaeologists on the site, dated the mine to a staggering 43,200 years old.
Chapstick
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”
LerveDr
North Korea: You have two cows. Its name is Kim Jong Un.