Local content policies and petro-development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A comparative analysis

New legal frameworks for oil and gas have been created in Ghana, Uganda, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya and Liberia since 2013 to put in place local content policies (LCPs). There are a number of reasons why such policies have become popular with African governments for petroleum and mining. Beginning with Angola and Nigeria and moving to the newer adopters of these policies, a general weakening of oil and gas LCPs in Sub-Saharan Africa indicates a 'softer' approach to regulation over time and a the emergence of a more pro-business agenda. This paper seeks to conduct an in-depth survey of LCPs in oil and gas across Sub-Saharan Africa in order to identify differing approaches and analyze emerging trends in the legal and institutional frameworks within which local content frameworks are enacted and within which they will be implemented in order to advance petro-development in Africa.