Welcome, Majorwaves Readers.
Here’s a sneak peek into last week’s energy events around what transpired in the three major sub-Saharan countries in Africa:
Coming on the heels of the just-concluded Nigeria Gas Association’s conference, Abuja, where Nigeria’s gas players strategized on how to refocus the country on gas with the use of innovations, we are pleased to connect the dots with a yawning demand for gas in South Africa. This demand has risen from the country’s resolve to shift from dirty coal to renewables with a heavy reliance on gas as transition fuel. Perhaps talks between Nigeria’s stakeholders and their South African counterparts will intensify at the coming Africa Oil Week in Cape Town.
Still on Nigeria; the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has pulled stakeholders together in a move to retain about $3.4bn dollars from expansion of NLNG via its train 7 project.
The bid round which took place last week for oil assets, organised by the Ghanaian government wasn’t an isolated effort to get things right, as the Petroleum Commission have since resumed a process of revoking existing licenses for dormant oil blocks.
It’s noteworthy that Ghana has become a net-exporter of electricity. This was made known by President Nana Akufo-Addo at the inauguration of the Bolgatanga-to-Ouagadougou Power Interconnection Project which would see up to 100 MW per day of electricity supplied from northern Ghana to Burkina Faso.
Meanwhile, Nigeria still battles with unstable power supply, leaving a huge investment gap to potential investors. We hope the claims by Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, ANED, in which it accused the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, of spending $5.6mn to generate 1megawatt of electricity, via the Rural Electrification Agency, as against a proposed $1.5mn aren’t substantiated. Such accusations cast doubt on the key objective of President Buhari’s fight against corruption. However, we hope the regulations and existing policies would be straightened out to create a conducive environment for FDIs in order to revamp the sector as continued government intervention funds haven’t worked.
On social investment initiative, we have a brief report on Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) as it uses its technology-driven initiative, Lagos Innovates, to collaborate with IBM in order to empower young Africans. Development on social investments in Lagos is quite important as researchers have reported that the city will be the largest in the world by 2100, with over 100 million inhabitants.
Enjoy your read, and make plans to register for the Africa Oil and Gas Talent Summit, AOGS, starting in two days.
Cheers.
