Bold leadership, inclusivity crucial for Africa’s energy future, says Nigeria’s Energy Adviser
**** The future of energy: Shaping the workforce of tomorrow
By Yunus Yusuf
It gives me great pleasure to deliver the opening address at this event. I thank the organizers and sponsors for the kind invitation to be with you today and to share my thoughts on the theme of “The Future of Energy: Shaping the Workforce of Tomorrow.”
Mrs Olu Verheijen, the Special Adviser on Energy to the President Bola Tinubu has called for the adoption of a transformative approach to Africa’s energy sector, one that embraces diversity and inclusivity to unlock the continent’s vast potential.
Verheijen disclosed this during her keynote address at the just concluded African Energy Week in Cape Town, South Africa.
She noted that Africa must ensure that energy ceases to be the limiting factor, but a tool for driving industrialisation and development through a productive energy workforce.
Verheijen, a leading figure in Nigeria’s energy reforms, noted that while Africa is home to abundant natural resources, over 75 per cent of its population still lacks reliable access to energy.
She said the future will be different, requiring human energy and expertise for adaptation, stressing that “we are the ones who will determine the outcome of the delicate balance between energy security, affordability and sustainability for this continent.”
According to her, one of the ways the continent can shape tomorrow’s energy workforce is engaging a new crop of talent, especially women, and young people, with a global perspective.
She stressed the need to attract women into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM as well as retention, advancement and sponsorship to high positions.
The Special Adviser, said women need advocates, supporting their growth and positioning them for opportunities while ensuring representation at the highest levels.
She said her appointment would not have come without Tinubu, a man driven to do things positively and differently.
Before then, she had worked in an International Oil Company, managed a pan-African portfolio of renewables investments, and sat on the board of a 14-billion-dollar Development Finance Institution with footprints in developing economies.
By her engagement, she said President Tinubu has demonstrated commitment to inclusiveness and empowering women and young people, adding that she and her team are determined to enable him succeed.
The Special Adviser said African has many qualified women, but men have been dominant because they are often sponsored into influential positions.
Recounting her recent feats, she said: “Within the last 12 months, we have clarified the regulatory roles to create an enabling environment for investments.
“Introduced reforms targeted at reducing high operational costs and project execution timelines and also introduced a clear set of fiscal incentives for Non-Associated Gas and Deep offshore oil and gas exploration and production.
“This is the first time that Nigeria is outlining a fiscal framework for deepwater gas since basin exploration commenced in 1991.
“Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act took twenty years to be passed into law and given Presidential assent, in 2021,” she added.
Verheijen said: “We are now building on that foundation with an unprecedented sense of urgency, to completely rewrite the narrative of oil and gas investment in Nigeria.
” We are already seeing the fruit of our work. Regulatory approvals are being expedited; major upstream investment decisions are being finalised.
“We have unlocked over $1 billion in investments across the value chain and by the middle of 2025 we expect to see Final Investment Decision on two more projects, including a multibillion billion-dollar deepwater exploration project, which will be the first of its kind in Nigeria in over a decade – one of many to come.
“We see the abundant opportunities that lie ahead. We see a Nigeria that is a leading global producer and exporter of energy – whether its fossil fuels or renewables ” she explained.
She said, We are not held back by the out-dated approaches and assumptions of the past. We are open, daring, and eager to leave a legacy that will stand the test of time.
“I will always be grateful to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for giving me this opportunity, and I intend to pay it forward, in all the ways that I can, for multitudes of young women out there just waiting in the wings for their own chance to show what they are capable of doing.
“I hope that in every country across Africa, these stories will be replicated, and the gender gaps that have come to define our landscape will be aggressively narrowed and closed.
“There is no doubt that the continent will be the better for it.
” Bringing the perspectives, capacity and the energy of its women, who make up half of the population, into the mix, is a requirement for building the Africa of our dreams,” Verheijen added.
