The Political Economy of Local Content in African Extractives: Lessons from Three African Countries

Extractive foreign direct investment (FDI) is heralded as the new development opportunity in Africa. But extractive FDI has a record of producing enclaves in host countries with few linkages to the local economy. Only if it creates local content will extractive FDI become a catalyst of development. This paper analyses the trajectories of local content policies and practices in three African countries – Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique. We argue that we cannot understand the dynamics and outcomes of local content policies in African extractives without understanding how local content has become ingrained in ruling coalitions’ rent-seeking and maintenance activities in the three countries. We discuss the consequences of evolving local content practices for political patronage.