By Lucy Ogalue
Mr NJ Ayuk, the Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber, says finance is critical to implementing domestic gas on the continent.
Ayuk said this while virtually presenting a keynote address at the ongoing Two-Day 2024 African Gas Innovation Summit (AGIS) on Friday in Abuja.
“If we must make domestic gas work in Africa, we must start looking at how we finance that.
“All African utilities except the ones in Seychelles, Mauritius and Morocco are bankrupt. They are not making money. We just have to take a big step on where we are.
“Most of the gas off-takers in Europe are European utilities. Our utilities in Africa are not able to be gas off-takers.
“I think we need to start driving how we can fix our utilities, but also how we take up our energy infrastructure,’’ he said.
According to Ayuk, having gas is not enough without being able to drive that gas through a sustainable, well-built infrastructure on the continent.
“The continent needs infrastructure to drive gas around Africa.
“And then we need to take care of our energy poverty issues, clean cooking issues and even manufacturing and development.
“There is so much need on this continent at the present moment; flaring, steel issues, and domestic gas can pave the way for us to solve that. But we also need to think a little bit differently.
“And I urge participants in this conference to play that role in thinking differently.”
He said it was a shame that the Nigerian gas demonetisation on the flaring project stalled and urged it to be ramped back up because Africa moves when Nigeria moves. When Nigeria talks, Africa talks.
“There is no need to have so many projects stuck in the hands of bureaucrats and regulators that stifle free markets, ingenuity, and innovation.
“Innovation goes when you get all these entrepreneurs out there thinking about big ideas, and then they try to find solutions and deal with a very difficult environment to get financing.
|”And you bring that financing, and the bureaucrats, some of them unelected, get to sit on those projects and kill it. We are killing our prosperity.
“So I want to urge this conference that we deal with those issues around fast-tracking approvals, streamlining the permitting process, and getting our people to move,’’ he said.
Ayuk urged government officials, regulators, and policymakers to avoid putting more roadblocks to domestic gas development and streamline and move very quickly for the continent’s benefit.
He restated the importance of incentivising domestic gas and making it bankable, as bankability was key to driving the project.
Ayuk said: “we need to look at those above-ground risk issues that have really stopped domestic gas across Africa. You want gas to go around Africa, but people can not get visas to go around Africa.
“That is something we will lead in our discussions with the AU in July. Travelling across this continent is easier for someone with a British or American passport.
“Some of the Nigerian or Senegalese passports or Ghanaian passports cannot travel across Africa because of our roadblocks among ourselves.
“So there are a lot of barriers to issues, but as we drive up this discussion, we should not forget that our above-ground risk issues are killing us when it comes to domestic gas.”
According to the AEC boss, a free and structured market is very important, but an enabling environment is even more essential today regarding domestic gas development.
“So, let us push Nigeria. Let us make our pride in Nigeria and Africa a real success so that we can have a country like Nigeria and a continent called Africa that we deserve and expect. “
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day summit has as its theme “ Igniting the Future: Driving Sustainability in Africa’s Energy Landscape through Gas Technology and Innovation.
The programme, which started on June 13, brought together stakeholders and partners from across the continent and will end on June 14. (NAN)
