– says CEO of Canadian company

GUYANA’S local content will need continuous improvement in keeping with the changing times, however, the fact that the country has already implemented local-content legislation and supporting institutions is an indication of good governance, and the country’s tremendous progress so far.

This was posited by Matt Adams, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NetBenefit Software, a Canadian company that specialises in data management with a focus on local-content management. Based in Newfoundland and Labrador Province, the company has been tracking local content in Canada for nearly 20 years.

“Local content and capacity building is [sic] incredibly important to continue to build a sustainable economy and [to] continue to thrive,” Adams said.
“There are a few things that have been really positive. Like having a Local Content Secretariat with a mandate, this is very good, it’s good governance. But also creating open dialogue between all stakeholders that is the public, companies, owners and operators of the asset and having a level of transparency there and just continuing to have that open dialogue is very important.”

Signed into law on 31 December, 2021, Guyana’s Local Content Act 2021, is a revolutionary legislation that paved the way to ensure that Guyanese gain equal opportunities and access in the oil-and-gas industry, and to ensure maximum benefits for Guyanese businesses.

However, members of the government have long noted that the legislation is not set in stone, since the laws would be amended to guarantee increased employment and business opportunities for the people of Guyana, as more and more Guyanese are trained and more businesses develop capacity.

“From the discussions I’ve had with many stakeholders, the government takes local content and capacity-building very seriously and that they are taking an approach of continuous improvement to ensure the country is as successful as possible and the Guyanese people get as much [sic] benefits as possible from the new opportunities happening offshore,” Adams noted.
Adams’ company was part of a trade delegation from Canadian Energy NL, Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest energy-industry association, which recently conducted a four-day mission in Guyana.

The delegation, which comprised over 10 Canadian companies, sought to identify opportunities and make connections to increase trade, meeting with the government, business community and other local stakeholders.

The visit was a collaboration between the High Commission of Canada’s Trade Commissioner Service, the Canada Guyana Chamber of Commerce and the Centre for Local Business Development (CLBD).

Adams has been CEO of the company for the past two years but has over ten years managing data, with a focus on evolving technological tools. Prior to being at NetBenefit Software, Adams worked for seven years at Sphera Solutions.

“My entire career I have spent working with various software that manage data to understand what’s happening, report on the data and help businesses to make better decisions in whatever context it is being collected in. This includes safety data, environmental data, and lately much more local-content data,” Adams shared.
Following the visit, Adams said his company has already decided that it will be paying another visit to Guyana as soon as January, to begin laying the foundation for potential partnerships with local companies.

“We have discussed with a lot of local companies about various initiatives and how they feel about local content, and with companies that operate in the petroleum sector to understand how they’re tracking and recording their local content. We’ve also discussed with different members of government the intention of the local-content legislation and how they’re hoping that it improves capacity for the Guyanese people as they’re more involved in the petroleum sector,” Adams noted.

A leader in benefits reporting, the NetBenefit Platform is a cloud-based software platform that allows organizations to manage, digitize, and improve the socio-economic impact of their operations.

“Our speciality is tracking local content for complex projects. Specifically in Newfoundland and labrador where we work with offshore oil production companies, and also large electricity- generation projects,” Adams explained.

“We also track not just local content but content for any spot of target communities in a company. For example, there are a lot of agreements with indigenous communities across Canada that requires a level of indigenous businesses to be engaged. So we track that as well.”

NetBenefit has provided software solutions for over 20 major projects which included managing over $100 billion in expenditure, more than 18,000 companies. Adams is now hopeful of being part of helping Guyana improve its local-content legislation.