The African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) is all set to come together in Cape Town in April to engage on key industry issues and identify financing solutions for sustainable infrastructure projects
Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, ARDA President and CEO of the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) of Ghana, said, “While the massive Dangote refinery in Nigeria and Sentuo Refinery in Ghana have come onstream recently, Africa’s significant future energy demands will require major investments across the Downstream value chain to deliver cleaner fuels and value-added petroleum products to our growing population. Projects spanning infrastructure upgrades and logistics efficiency improvements must be pursued alongside cleaner fuel and vehicle initiatives. As such, ARDA stands ready to collaborate with our key partners like OPEC, APPO and the African Union Commission and other stakeholders to pursue a robust, intra-African oil and gas industry supported by innovative financing solutions like the African Energy Bank that is due to take off later this year.”
Anibor Kragha, ARDA executive secretary, said, “Africa needs to be very intentional as we follow a coordinated strategy to execute bankable, energy infrastructure projects focused on balancing our continent’s energy security requirements with the global energy transition agenda.”
“Our first ARDA Investment Forum will focus on fleshing out the key best practices – robust regulatory frameworks to support investments, effective project preparation to determine the scope, cost and schedule for economic projects, fulfilment of critical ESG requirements and targeted human capacity development objectives – are emplaced to attract the necessary project financing solutions to ensure that investments are made as envisioned to deliver Africa’s Energy Transition Plan. We must harness our critical human and mineral resources to target critical pools of capital to eradicate energy poverty and unleash the cleaner energy required to enable the continent’s transition to a low-carbon economy.”
Some of the topics to be explored at the event includes 'Post COP 28: Ensuring a coordinated, robust intra-African oil & gas industry alongside implementation of energy transition aspirations', 'Future of cleaner fuels in Africa – LPG, Biofuels, Hydrogen, etc.', 'Making Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Issues Front and Centre', 'The Technology Imperative – Innovations to drive Energy Transition in Africa', and 'African Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI) – The Role of the African Downstream'.
ARDA WEEK 2024 will be held from 22-26 April at the Century City Conference Centre, Cape Town, South Africa.
