2026: Nigeria on Global Map as Business Leaders Gather for Solewant Group’s Africa Energy Summit
Olusegun Peters
Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is set to deepen its penetration of the global energy market as Solewant Group mobilises policymakers, energy executives, financiers, development partners, and researchers from across Africa and the rest of the world, to brainstorm on strategies for building a sustainable and technologically advanced energy future for the African continent.
Africa possesses huge energy resources, but inadequate technological innovation has continued to hinder the continent’s long-term energy security.
With limited access to technology, Africa’s huge energy resources have failed to support competitive domestic industries, viable indigenous contractors, bankable projects, technical skills and technologies capable of operating to international standards.
It is against this backdrop that the Solewant Group will focus attention on harnessing the continent’s enormous energy resources through innovation at its 10th Africa Energy Summit.
Designed to be anchored by the theme: ‘Scaling Innovative Industrial Capacity for Africa’s Energy Security,’ this year’s energy summit scheduled to hold from November 26-27, 2026 in Port Harcourt, will bring together energy executives, policymakers, academics, regulators, financiers, investors, development institutions, members of the diplomatic community and business leaders from Africa, the Caribbean and other international markets.
At the 2025 energy summit, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume; Prof. PLO Lumumba of the Lumumba Foundation, members of the National Assembly and other policymakers, global energy executives, Development Financial Institutions (DFIs), development partners, and global energy researchers had drummed support for emerging technologies shaping global energy systems.
According to Solewant Group, discussions in this 2026 summit “are expected to move beyond the traditional debate about Africa’s resource potential towards the more difficult question of execution: How innovation is financed, how African contractors acquire productive capability, how industrial facilities are sustained, how technology is transferred, and how the continent builds the manufacturing and human capacity necessary to secure its own energy future.”
While last year’s summit took place at the Solewant Industrial Park, Alode-Onne, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, this year’s event will take place at the Presidential Hotel, also in Port Harcourt.
This annual conversation has become particularly relevant to Solewant Group and other African energy stakeholders.
Established 26 years ago, Solewant Group has consistently and progressively built capabilities in steel pipes, pipeline coating, fabrication, construction, corrosion protection, field-joint services, technical training and industrial manufacturing.
Solewant Group’s business around steel pipes, pipe coating, fabrication, construction and protection of metal and concrete assets serving the oil, gas, water, refinery, petrochemical and allied industries has continued to service the African energy sector.
The group had at the beginning of 2025, launched its Roadmap Plus 2025–2035, as a long-term growth and industrial development strategy of an African energy services company that was determined to compete internationally by continuous and deliberate investments in its people, plants, products and technical solutions.
Focused on the expansion of the Group’s manufacturing capabilities at the Solewant Industrial Park, Alode-Eleme/Onne, Rivers State, the Roadmap Plus recorded its first major achievement in July 2025 when the company commissioned a specialised pipe bend and fitting multi-layer coating facility.
The facility, which was developed in partnership with the company’s foreign partners – Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) – aimed to address a longstanding technical challenge associated with applying protective multi-layer coating systems to bends, tees, flanges and other irregular pipeline components.
Under the Roadmap Plus, another milestone was recorded with the commissioning of the Solewant Specialty Protective Coatings and Paints Limited manufacturing plant on July 31, 2026, transforming the company from being predominantly an applicator and provider of industrial coating solutions to a domestic manufacturer of protective coating materials and paints.
The Group’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mr. Solomon Ewanehi also confirmed that the state-of-the-art Specialty Protective Coatings and Paints Manufacturing Plant was a product of Roadmap Plus, which aligned with the company’s wider objective of strengthening domestic manufacturing, skills development, technology transfer and Nigeria’s industrial value chain.
Shortly before the Namibia Oil and Gas Conference in Windhoek, where Solewant Group maintained a strong presence, the company had presented 11 formulated coating and paint products developed under Solewant Specialty Protective Coatings & Paints Limited.
The portfolio comprises Solguard Emulsion Paint, Solguard Matt Paint, Solguard Silk Paint, Solguard Alkyd Gloss Enamel, Solguard Red Oxide Metal Primer, Solguard Zinc-Rich Epoxy Primer, Solguard High-Build Epoxy Coat, Solguard Acrylic Polyurethane Coat, Novaguard 100% Solid Epoxy, Novaguard 100% Solid Polyurethane and Novaguard 100% Solid Polyurea.
The Solguard decorative coatings provide qualities such as good hiding power, adhesion, weather resistance, washability and durable finishes for residential, commercial and institutional environments, while the industrial systems extend into corrosion protection, UV resistance, chemical resistance, abrasion resistance, waterproofing and long-term protection of steel and other critical assets.
At the inauguration of the manufacturing facility, the Rivers State Governor, Mr Siminalayi Fubara; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Akume; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri; and Namibian High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency Walde Natangwe Ndavishiya, and other oil and gas industry stakeholders, had described the facility as a demonstration of the Nigerian companies’ capacity to solve the country’s challenges in the energy sector,
Solewant Group’s subsidiaries include: Solewant Nigeria Limited (SNL) – Africa’s largest multi-layer pipe coating facility, delivering advanced coating systems including 3LPE, 3LPP, FBE, and CWC; Field Joint Coatings Limited (FJCL) – specialised solutions for onshore and offshore pipeline joint protection; Solewant Specialty Protective Coatings & Paints Limited (SSPC) – high-performance industrial coating applications and protective systems; Pipes and Metals Industries Limited (PMI) – Steel pipe manufacturing and precision metal fabrication; and Solewant Energy Training Institute (SETI) –industry-focused training and certification for Africa’s energy workforce.
The newest subsidiary is Ukemezi Africa Oil & Gas Limited — Namibia.
The bend coating plant represents further investment in plants.
The 11 SSPC products represent continuous investment in products and indigenous manufacturing.
SETI represents investment in people and knowledge. The company’s engineering, coating, fabrication, field-joint and asset-protection capabilities represent investment in technical solutions.
Having established a strong footprint in Nigeria with its state-of-the-art Solewant Industrial Park at Alode-Eleme, Onne in Rivers State, Solewant Group has expanded to Namibia to contribute not only products and services, but also manufacturing know-how, technical services, skills development, technology transfer and long-term partnerships.
Following Namibia’s entry into an important new phase of energy and industrial development, Solewant Group rallied global energy companies to a one-day market-entry and business engagement forum in Windhoek, Namibia.
The roadshow explored how indigenous and international businesses can work together to retain more value in Namibia while strengthening the country’s emerging energy and industrial supply chains.
In his address at the Namibian Oil and Gas Conference 2026, titled: “From Decision to Dividend: Making Namibia’s Oil Work for Namibians,” the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Solewant Group, Ewanehi spoke extensively on how the Namibian oil and gas industry can work for Namibians.
He charged the Namibian oil and gas stakeholders not to copy Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Norway and Brazil but to learn from all of them and build a Namibian model.
Solewant Group’s Namibian subsidiary, Ukemezi Africa Oil & Gas Limited, represents the beginning of a more deliberate continental expansion strategy.
It would be recalled that Nigeria’s oil and gas industry also attracted global attention at the 2026 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) when Solewant Group showcased the latest industry technology to energy professionals, government officials, and researchers from more than 100 countries in four days of technical exchange, executive dialogues, and dealmaking.
Themed: ‘Steering Offshore Energy Innovation into the Future,’ the 2026 OTC held from May 4-7, 2026, had traced the contours of a global energy sector that was navigating rising global demand, accelerating digitalization, and a more complex geopolitical map than at any point in recent memory.
Over 25,000 people attended OTC Houston, and this year’s conference featured nine executive dialogues, 18 keynote addresses, 48 technical sessions, and a wide range of additional presentations covering the full spectrum of the offshore industry.
The exhibition floor hosted nearly 1,000 companies, from major operators and service companies to a growing roster of digital, robotics, and energy-transition technology providers, including Solewant Group, which maintained one of the largest private exhibition booths in Nigeria Pavilion at the event.
•Peters wrote from Port Harcourt, Rivers State
