Ayobami Adedinni
The Kenyan government through the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining has thrown its weight behind the 5th edition of the Sub-Saharan African Upstream Summit billed to hold in Nairobi, Kenya from 24th to 26th July 2019.
In an official letter detailing the reason for this endorsement, the Ministry said the summit will put Kenya in the limelight of oil producing nations of the world hence its support.
Earlier, the Organiser of the annual sub-Saharan Africa Upstream Oil and Gas Summit, Zenith Professional Training, ZPT, said that it was providing opportunities for an exchange of ideas on best practices between investors and regulators across the East Africa region to solve the funding fuss rocking the sector.
It maintained that its forthcoming conference would seek to exploit the opportunities in the East African oil and gas industry.
Dapo Ayoola, CEO, ZPT said this year’s summit will provide opportunities for practitioners and investors to showcase “what we already have, exchange ideas on what we are doing rightly and what we can learn from each other-West Africa learning from east Africa, east Africa copying best practices from West Africa and South Africa.”
“Nigeria is a success story of so many indigenous entrepreneurs who have gone not just into downstream but Exploration and production. We have many success stories to take to the rest of Africa. From Eroton, Aiteo, Amni, Seplat among others,” Ayoola said.
According to him, a major challenge to the continent’s growth in the sector is the lack of sustainable funding mechanism.
He said: “Like any other sector, the challenges are there but the way we are approaching the challenges is focusing on opportunities and talking to regulators. If regulators are upfront with investors by telling them what they need to do and then we get a checklist, that’s all an investor wants to know.
“At the summit, we will also discuss funding opportunities. Can we pull together as a continent and fund genuine investment opportunities on our soil?
“In terms of manpower, Nigerians are as brilliant as any other part of the world. What we have not been able to put together is our own funding mechanism”, he said.
Speaking on the gains of past events, he said that despite it being an up and coming platform, the impact is already being felt by participants and stakeholders in the industry.
“Specifically, during the first edition in 2015, Nigeria Petroleum Exchange (NIPEX) was there and they had a stand. We had a gentleman there from Uganda. Today, NIPEX is consulting for Uganda regulators, supporting them on how to start a Petroleum Exchange which will be the first in East Africa. This is a nation to nation benefit.”
The annually held conference will provide opportunities for an exchange of ideas on best practices between investors and regulators across the region.
The theme for 2019 is “Growing Africa’s Energy Potential : Focus on Liquefied Natural Gas”.
Kenyan government endorses Sub-Saharan African Upstream Oil and Gas Summit
