2022 ALCIF: Stakeholders Call for Robust Funding to Salvage Africa’s Oil & Gas Industry

Key players in Africa’s oil and gas industry have called for a more robust hydrocarbon development model that is anchored on seeking alternative funding plan to salvage the continent’s energy sector, amidst energy transition realities and funding constraints.
The stakeholders gathered in Lagos on Monday at the African Local Content Investment Forum (ALCIF) with the theme: ‘Evolving A Pan-African Strategy Towards Sustainable Funding of Africa Oil and Gas Projects’.
The ALCIF, according to the organizers, is a follow-up discussion to the First African Local Content Roundtable held in June 2021 at the Towers of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.  
The objective, they said, is to kick-start the development of a framework for establishing a pool of funds for funding major oil & gas projects and further attract investors into the industry. 
Key speakers at the forum included the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Nasi Sani Gwarzo. 
The minister provided quantitative analysis of the huge resource endowments in Africa, which include an estimated 600 trillion standard cubic feet of gas and about 120 billion barrels of crude oil, making Africa a hydrocarbon rich province.
The convener of the Forum and the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, is worried that Africa’s hydrocarbon resources are fast becoming “endangered species”, as some global financial institutions and multinational project promoters are pulling out of hydrocarbon development projects, due to commitment to reduce carbon emissions. 
He added that at country level, Nigeria represents a bright spot in the provision of funds that can be sourced for the execution of oil & gas projects, stressing that such funds included a cumulative $500 million intervention fund spread across the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund in partnership with BOI, $100 million capacity building and women in oil and gas fund in partnership with NEXIM bank and $50 million research fund to support research and innovation. 
It was revealed that NCDMB also deployed the NCDF to establish modular refineries to enhance local refining, local manufacturing of LPG cylinders and gas processing, marketing and distribution facilities. 
Wabote recommended the creation of special local content development fund for Africa with diverse products that address needs of oil and gas value chain penetration. The Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO), Dr. Omar Farouk, stated that Africa has come to the full realization that the parts of the world that it has depended on for years to develop its  hydrocarbon resources are now moving away from fossil fuel development and there was the need to develop a new business model for the development of hydrocarbon sector. 
The event, which had over 200 participants and three technical sessions, was structured around eliciting discussions among stakeholders on the future of the oil and gas industry in the continent amidst energy transition realities and funding constraints.