The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, has called on African governments to leverage technology and innovation to achieve energy sufficiency and its economic multiplier effect.
Kyari said this while delivering a speech, ‘Navigating Energy Transition and the Imperatives of University-Industry Collaboration.’
“African governments and institutions must rise to the occasion to leverage technology and innovation to support energy sufficiency, industrialisation, job creation, and economic growth,” Kyari stated.
He hinted the NNPC was positioned to build new technologies and innovative business models, to enable it to play an important role in the future of energy.
“NNPC has set the necessary machinery to lead Africa in the transition to low-carbon energy and renewables. We are taking [a] firm position in this transition by institutionalising the necessary enablers for success,” Kyari noted.
According to him, the corporation has established a renewable energy division and completely transformed the NNPC’s research and development division to ‘NNPC Research, Technology and Innovation Centre.’
However, the NNPC boss stressed that the oil industry alone could not drive substantial innovation without sustained collaboration with universities, research institutes, manufacturers, policymakers, and regulators.
He maintained the energy transition could not be complete without the right investment climate, capital, effective regulation, stakeholders’ commitment, supportive infrastructure, and an innovative business environment that could accommodate the anticipated changes.
Kyari further observed that the diversification of energy sources would improve global access to energy and reduce the number of people without access to energy, especially in developing countries.
He suggested that the new energy transition must be fashioned towards creating a balanced landscape that supports diverse groups of people’s development and energy needs.
