Abstract
The article applies social network analysis (SNA) as a methodological tool to investigate the impact of the Nigerian oil and gas local content development (LCD) Policy on the development of its higher education institutions (HEIs). We focus on one of the main objectives of this policy- first consideration for employment and training. Invariably, the employment of indigenous manpower is largely dependent upon the higher education industry, who should provide at least, the minimum training required by graduates to be employed by the oil and gas industry, who then provide a more advanced training. Stakeholder groups were identified and categorised, then subjected to critical scrutiny to select seven key stakeholders for this study. These include representatives of the Federal Government, HEI Lecturers, HEI students, young employees, Nigerian University Commission (NUC), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), and oil and gas industry players (consisting of multinational oil companies, indigenous oil companies, multinational service providers and indigenous service providers). Drawing from 32 semi-structured interviews, findings revealed that the relationship between the NCDMB and HEI lecturers is uni directional. This is also the case of the relationship between the federal government and the HEI lecturers. Determination of betweenness among the stakeholder groups ranged between 0.0 and 1.417 and overall density of the network was 76%. The Federal Government in its capacity as stakekeepers occupied the position of global centrality within the network, suggesting that they should act as brokers as far as the drive for LCD and its impact on the HEIs are concerned, however, the results of the density of the network suggests some gaps in interrelationship among the stakeholders which is evident in reality, and corroborated by the findings from interview responses. The residual unconnectedness of 24% within the network largely accounts for this. Overall, the findings have strong implications for the development of Nigeria’s HEI industry and from a wider perspective, LCD policy implementation. The study provides a first step to examine the impact of Nigeria’s LCD policy on intellectual capacity development, which is key to value addition, as stated in the NOGIC Act.