.Insists continent must finance it’s own energy future
.Urges deeper African integration to end energy poverty
FAVOUR ISHEMBER, Abuja
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri, Ph.D, has revealed that the African continent spends over $120 billion annually on hydrocarbon imports.
In a press statement issued to Daily Champion and signed by Nneamaka Okafor, SA Media and Communication to the Minister, Dr. Lokpobiri called for deeper regional integration at the Africa Oil Week (AOW) 2025 Ministerial and CEO Leadership Forum in Accra, Ghana.
The Minister, who reaffirmed Nigeria’s leadership role in advancing Africa’s energy, stressed that integration remains the most effective strategy to end Africa’s energy poverty.
Lokpobiri noted that shared infrastructure, harmonized standards, and technical expertise will enable the continent to secure its energy future, the statement said.
The statement reads in part:
“This is capital flight. These funds should remain within Africa to fuel our own development priorities,” the Minister stated.
The Minister emphasized that the real challenge is not access to capital but the lack of aligned regulatory frameworks and fiscal regimes.
“Investors make long-term decisions based on stability and predictability.
Africa must harmonize its policies to attract and retain investment,” he said.
As part of Nigeria’s leadership drive, Sen. Lokpobiri announced the creation of a West African Reference Market (WARM)—an initiative to leverage Nigeria’s growing refining capacity to supply petroleum products across West Africa and beyond.
On the global energy transition, he clarified that the Paris Agreement does not require abandoning fossil fuels, but rather a reduction in emissions.
“Africa contributes only 3% of global CO₂. We cannot lead an energy transition when we don’t even have energy.
Our priority must be to responsibly harness our abundant resources to power growth,” he added.
Sen. Lokpobiri urged African nations to unite around a shared purpose: “Africa has the market, the population, and the resources. What we need now is to keep value within our continent and finance our own energy future”.
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