NCDMB, AFREXIMBank, APPO chart new funding models for African oil industry

Lagos – The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB; African Petroleum Producers’ Organization, APPO; and Africa Export-Import Bank, AFREXIMBank, have outlined new and sustainable models of funding oil and gas investments in Africa, using resources drawn from the continent and de-emphasising international financiers.

The new pathways were some of the key outcomes of the African Local Content Investment Forum, ALIF, hosted by the NCDMB in Lagos and form part of the concerted efforts to overcome the decision of western nations and their financial institutions, and international operating oil companies to suspend funding of new investments in hydrocarbon projects because of their advocacy for energy transition and green energy.

The rally by African institutions is also intended to respond to the sustained push by western nations for Africa to abandon her hydrocarbon resources by attracting or deploying funding to the oil and gas industry and is coming on the heels of COP26 event held in Glasgow in late 2021where leading advocates of energy transition made fresh commitments to curb methane emissions, align the finance sector with net-zero by 2050, ditch the internal combustion engine, accelerate the phase-out of coal, and end international financing for fossil fuels.

The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr Simbi Kesiye Wabote, in his welcome address, stated that the African oilproducing countries need to continue exploiting their hydrocarbon resources to fuel their developmental and economic activities, but their actions must be backed by an urgent strategy to

address funding, investment, and technological challenges.

He argued that the challenge of inadequate energy is partly the reason why Africa is faced with poverty, conflicts, migration, brain drain and ranks very low on Human Development Index.

He suggested that the AfreximBank, which supports several oil and gas deals in the continent, the African Development Bank, AfDB, and other funds from Development Financial Institutions, DFIs, in Africa could be explored for funding hydrocarbon development projects.

He also recommended that credible businessmen in the continent could also be motivated to pick interest in the industry, adding that “there must be a means of aggregating the various funds so that big-ticket funding