The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, recently inaugurated the executive board of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO). Kachikwu, who is currently the Chairman of APPO, said that the main purpose of inaugurating the board was to institutionalize the reforms needed in the organization’s structure as well as to recapitalize the fund of the organization which proposals were already embodied in its documents.
The inaugurated members of the Executive Board of Appo are Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan (Nigeria); Nigerian Delegate – Dr. Folasade Yemi -Esan (Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria; Salissou Moussa Diakite, Nigerien; Valérie Commelin, Chadian; Epigat Fernand, Gabonese; André Joseph Okondza, Congolese; Doukoure Ousmane, Ivorien; and Chananti Sahgui Tiatti, Beninese.
The Minister in his remarks advised that the operational blueprint should be studied as more inputs were welcome ahead of the Council of Ministers of African Petroleum Producers’ Organization forthcoming meeting. At the time Kachikwu took over in APPO, the reforms identified included an increased synergy that would help mobilize the investment needed to facilitate and deliver the major infrastructure required by the continent, such as trans-border gas and oil pipeline, joint refineries, gas plants and others. On the APPO fund for Technical Cooperation, Kachikwu said it was undergoing recapitalization to enable it better fulfil the role for which it was established.
He recalled the Nigerian Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo stressed that it could be remodelled after similar institutions that had succeeded, like the OPEC Fund, where even non-OPEC members can begin to invest. He said: “It is time for us to open up the APPO. The APPO fund ought to operate as an autonomous entity, independent from the APPO secretariat, in the same way that the OPEC fund operates independently of OPEC itself.
“Additional to the above structural and Funding reforms, we’ve been addressing the issues of economic diversification to address the needs of a post-oil era”
Kachikwu, therefore, urged the inaugurated Executive Board members to deepen reforms needed in the organization’s structure Earlier in his remarks, the Secretary of APPO, Mahaman Laouan Gaya, the body was created to serve as a platform for cooperation and harmonization of efforts, collaboration, sharing of knowledge and skills among African oil-producing countries. With its headquarters in Brazzaville, Congo, the Organization changed its name from African Petroleum Producers’ Association to African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) in 2017.
Among members of APPO are Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana, Congo, Chad, Benin, Cameroun Gabon, Egypt Libya, South Africa, Mauritania and Sudan.