Nigeria’s indigenous oil firms offer Africa roadmap to asset ownership

By Onu Okorie

Nigeria’s Oando, Heirs Energies Offer Angola Roadmap to Oil Asset Ownership
Nigeria’s experience in expanding indigenous ownership and operatorship in the oil and gas industry has emerged as a major lesson for Angola and other African countries as the country seeks to build stronger national energy companies and deepen local content.
The African Export-Import Bank Afreximbank presented the experiences of Nigerian indigenous operators, including Oando and Heirs Energies, as examples of how African companies can move beyond service provision and minority participation to acquire strategic assets, assume operatorship and become major players in the energy sector.
Oando’s US$783 million acquisition of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company NAOC increased its interests in Oil Mining Leases OMLs 60–63 from 20 per cent to 40 per cent, while Heirs Energies acquired a 45 per cent interest in OML 17 and assumed operatorship of the asset.
The transactions were highlighted at Afreximbank’s Local Content Development Forum held in Luanda, Angola, on September 9, 2026, as practical examples of the potential for indigenous African companies to scale through strategic acquisitions backed by appropriate financing and partnerships.
The forum, held at the Centro de Convenções de Talatona, brought together government institutions, financial institutions, indigenous companies and industry players to explore ways of unlocking financing across Angola’s oil and gas value chain.
It focused particularly on how project finance, trade finance, downstream infrastructure funding and industrial development could help Angolan companies expand their capacity and take larger ownership positions in the country’s energy industry.
The Nigerian experience was particularly significant against the backdrop of Angola’s efforts to ensure that local content translates into greater indigenous ownership and industrial development rather than being limited to participation in contracts.
The forum identified a substantial pipeline of investment opportunities across Angola’s oil and gas sector, including US$2.5 billion for Lobito Oil, US$1 billion for Sonangol, US$1.4 billion for Amufert and US$280 million for Itracom.
Afreximbank said Angola remained one of Africa’s most significant energy markets, noting that it had invested close to US$2 billion in the country’s oil and gas sector.
The bank said its latest engagement was aimed at building on that investment by creating pathways for more Angolan companies to progress from participation and service provision to ownership, operatorship and scale.
Executive Vice President, Global Trade Bank, Afreximbank, Mr. Haytham Elmaayergi, said the next phase of Angola’s energy development should focus on creating national and regional champions.
“Angola has built a strong platform for its energy sector, with Afreximbank playing a longstanding role in structuring, financing and mobilising capital to support its development at scale,” Elmaayergi said.
According to him, the objective is to enable more Angolan companies to move from participation and service provision towards ownership and scale, drawing lessons from successful indigenous African operators.
He said the bank would work towards turning such ambitions into bankable transactions capable of producing the next generation of national and regional energy champions.
President of the Association of Indigenous Companies for the Oil Industry of Angola (ASSEA), Berta Rodrigues Issa, welcomed the initiative, saying local content must be viewed as an instrument for industrialisation rather than merely a mechanism for awarding contracts to indigenous firms.
Issa said countries did not industrialise simply by exporting more than they imported, but by transforming their natural resources, developing productive capacity and building companies capable of competing beyond their borders.
She said Afreximbank’s “From Resources to Value” theme was closely aligned with Angola’s local content agenda.
“For ASSEA, Local Content cannot be limited to the participation of Angolan-owned companies in one-off contracts. It must be a deliberate path towards capacity building, industrialization and competitiveness,” she said.
The forum also examined some of the major constraints preventing indigenous companies from expanding, including inadequate access to suitable financing, weak bankability, execution capacity and limited market access.