During the recently held OPEC-Africa Energy Dialogue 2024 in Cairo, the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) emphasised on 'cooperation' and 'dialogue' that include all energy stakeholders as the best means to effectively address the nation's energy challenges
Haitham Al Ghais, secretary general, OPEC, said, “In terms of climate change and energy transitions, developing countries around the world, including those in Africa, continue to balance priorities between the dire need to support the development of their national economies, while also adapting to ever-shifting dynamics related to climate change.”
Amani Abou-Zeid, the African Union Commissioner for Energy, Infrastructure and Digitalisation, explained, “We always need to consider Africa’s context as analysis shows that the African energy demand could increase by 30% - compared to 10% in global energy demand - by 2040. Access to reliable, affordable and clean energy in Africa remains the priority for the continent, calling for concessional finance and investments for more generation, production, interconnections, local transformation and domestic trading of our energy resources in consideration of the AFCFTA and that to close the energy poverty on the continent and promote growth and wellbeing.”
"The African energy transition programme and the African Single Energy Market both championed by the African Union Commission set out the vision and the path for Africa-wide at accelerating access and the transition, making use of Africa’s huge and relatively untapped energy resources,” she added.
Omar Farouk Ibrahim, secretary general of the African Petroleum Producers' Organisation (APPO), who also participated in the meeting, stated that work on the Africa Energy Bank is in progress, and its take off has been approved by the APPO Ministerial Council in the first half of 2024. Once operational, the AEB will address funding challenges for oil and gas projects in Africa.
Ibrahim also emphasised on the importance of the dialogue platform in bringing together stakeholders for solidifying the energy agenda in Africa, while finding innovative answers to the challenges it entails. Fostering partnerships, leveraging technology, and mobilising resources are some of the other points that he brought up as solutions to universal energy access in the continent.
The Africa Refineries and Distributors' Association (ARDA) was present to support APPO's positive developments on AEB, as the association president, Abdul-Hamid Mustapha, expressed his anticipation in working with APPO on providing prospective downstream projects for the AEB initiative. ARDA also congratulated OPEC on conducting the dialogue and reaffirmed its commitmment to working with it and other key prtners on advancing Africa's energy strategies.
Mustapha also chose the platform to share ARDA’s plans on creating a consolidated register of investable energy infrastructure project, which the association will be launching at the first-ever ARDA Investment Forum to be held during the 2024 ARDA Week in Cape Town from 22-26 April 2024.
The OPEC-Africa Energy Dialogue will be back again in 2025.
