Terry DavidWhen energy policy is discussed in high-level strategy meetings or national budget sessions, the focus often turns to production targets, infrastructure investment, or foreign exchange earnings. Employment is usually mentioned, but often as an afterthought—a hoped-for consequence rather than a central objective. Simbi Wabote, former Executive Secretary of Nigeria’s Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), flipped that equation. For him, employment was not just a byproduct of good energy policy. It was a metric of success.
During his seven-year tenure from 2016 to 2023, Simbi Wabote approached policy not as an abstract framework, but as a set of levers—each one capable of producing real, measurable change in people’s lives. He believed that energy development without human capital development would always fall short. That belief informed how he shaped Nigeria’s local content strategy, how he built partnerships, and how he measured impact.
At the time Wabote assumed leadership of the NCDMB, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry remained heavily dependent on foreign expertise, equipment, and capital. The result was a paradox: while the sector contributed a significant portion of national income, it employed only a fraction of Nigerians in high-value roles. Wabote understood that correcting this imbalance wasn’t just a matter of ethics. It was a matter of national resilience.
He linked energy policy directly to employment by designing a system where every project, contract, and initiative had to justify not just its technical feasibility, but its local labor contribution. This wasn’t protectionism. It was strategic inclusion. From fabrication yards to upstream installations, Wabote ensured that Nigerian talent wasn’t confined to the margins. He pushed for workforce participation targets, monitored compliance, and created pathways for skilled Nigerians to fill roles traditionally outsourced.
To make this work, he knew he couldn’t just demand employment. He had to enable it. That’s where capacity development came in. Wabote championed an expansive skills-building agenda that trained thousands of Nigerians in pipeline welding, instrumentation, marine operations, and emerging fields like LNG processing and modular refining. These weren’t generic certifications. They were tailored to match actual project requirements, ensuring that trainees could move straight from training into employment pipelines.
Beyond training, he addressed structural obstacles that often stand between policy and job creation. Financing was one. Many local companies lacked the liquidity to take on large contracts, even when qualified. Under Wabote, the NCDMB launched the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund—a $350 million pool offering accessible, low-interest loans to indigenous firms. With access to capital, those firms could expand, hire, and retain more workers. The knock-on effect was significant: more jobs, better contracts, stronger domestic supply chains.
Wabote also saw infrastructure as a job generator. Projects like the Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGAPS) were designed not just to stimulate regional economies, but to create clusters of employment around industrial hubs. Located in underserved parts of the country, these parks offered factory space, power infrastructure, and support services tailored to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). They created jobs directly through construction and operation—and indirectly by helping new businesses scale. His interview in Principal Post explores this in further depth.
Crucially, Wabote didn’t isolate employment as a one-time figure to be counted at the end of a project. He embedded job creation into the entire project lifecycle. From planning to execution, from fabrication to facility management, his policies required stakeholders to map out workforce implications and report them transparently. He treated employment as a measurable outcome—not a talking point.
This philosophy was also evident in how he engaged international oil companies. Rather than issue mandates in isolation, Wabote involved them in co-developing implementation strategies. He understood that collaboration, not confrontation, would produce the best outcomes. By aligning incentives—local employment goals with operational efficiency and regulatory compliance—he helped embed job creation into the DNA of the sector.
Even during downturns, when companies faced pressure to cut costs, Wabote held the line on workforce development. He argued that sustaining local talent wasn’t a luxury. It was insurance. Skilled Nigerian professionals could maintain operations, reduce dependency on fly-in specialists, and anchor the industry through volatile cycles. Employment, in his model, was not expendable. It was essential to sectoral stability.
Simbi Wabote’s approach was rooted in systems thinking. He saw energy as more than oil and gas flows. He saw it as an ecosystem—one in which employment strengthens families, communities, and national capacity. And rather than hope that jobs would follow investment, he worked to ensure they were built in from the beginning.
The results spoke for themselves. During his tenure, Nigeria’s local content performance grew from 26% to over 50%, and thousands of jobs were created in engineering, construction, manufacturing, and services. Beyond the statistics was a shift in thinking: employment was no longer viewed as a downstream benefit of policy. It had become a core design feature.
In an era when governments around the world are grappling with energy transition, economic inclusion, and job creation, Simbi Wabote’s tenure offers a clear lesson: policy must touch the ground. It must show up in the form of opportunity—in the training center, on the factory floor, and in the payrolls of local enterprises. For Wabote, energy policy was never just about hydrocarbons. It was about people. And through careful, deliberate leadership, he turned that conviction into performance.
Learn more about Simbi Wabote on f6s.com.
