From Adewale Sanyaolu, Houston, Texas
The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has urged African countries to join hands in the fight against energy poverty.
The Minister stated this at the opening ceremony of the Nigerian pavilion at Offshore Technology Conference(OTC) which began yesterday in Houston, Texas.
According to him, Africa as a continent must collaborate to develop policies that would tackle energy poverty.
He argued that policies developed in isolation without taking into consideration the unique nature of the continent would not augur well for Africa.
He said the OTC is not a jamboree but an avenue for Nigeria and by extension Africa to showcase it’s many potentials. He added that the energy problems of Africa cannot be solved individually, hence the establishment of the Africa Petroleum Produces Organisation (APPO).
With APPO, he said Africa can work together and create common solutions to the challenge of energy poverty in Africa. He noted that he is happy that Donald Trump is the President of the United States because that would help slow down the hypocritical campaign of energy transition which is gaining ground and has taken different dimensions to the disadvantage of Africa.
He maintained that the discourse around energy transition is simply geopolitics.
According to him, another challenge of deepening energy poverty in Africa is funding. He explained that funding has been weaponised and used by the West to deny funding to Africa as part of our quest to liberate Africa.
This, he said, informed the decision of APPO to establish the African Energy Bank as a means to liberate Africa from energy poverty.
Lokpobiri added that the takeoff of the Bank has been scheduled for this quarter.
He called on other African countries that have invested in other parts of the world to return such monies to Africa and invest the same in Africa Energy Bank needed to fund our energy demands in Africa.
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