The African Energy Chamber has appointed its highest-level advisory committee to serve on local content matters and support capacity building across the continent.
The local content committee members are part of the chamber’s advisory board and serve in their personal capacities, representing decades of experience working for the leading local and international players in Africa.
They include Kola Karim, CEO, Shoreline Energy International; Walter Peviani, Managing Director, Saipem Contracting Nigeria Ltd; Jorg Kohnert, Managing Director, Jagal Energy; Chijioke Akwukwuma, Managing Director/CEO, Ocean Deep Drilling ESV Nigeria Limited; Jude Kearney, President, Kearney Africa; and Eric Williams, President, Royal Triangle Energy Solutions.
Others are Pablo Memba, CEO, Equatorial Resources; Ogutu Okudo, Country Manager, SpringRock Group; and Rémi Mouchel, Operations Director and President of the Executive Board, IFP Training.
Local content has always been at the core of the chamber’s mandate and priorities. Capacity building and the procurement of local goods and services throughout the African hydrocarbons value chain is a central pillar to building sustainability in the industry, creating jobs and generating local value for African economies.
According to experts, as African energy markets recover from COVID-19 and the historic crash of oil prices, local content matters will become even more important for governments and operators to support economic recovery and cut costs.
In addition, 2020 has been a turning point for the African regional content, with increasing awareness across the continent on the need to build regional ventures and enterprises able to offer African solutions to African energy problems, from Senegal to Mozambique.
“We cannot continue to blame others for the lack of progress. Local content is changing across the board and adapting to new realities and requirements. In 2020, local content development needs to adapt to new market dynamics and developments in the African workforce. All stakeholders need to come around key priorities for our industry including the integration of women, the development of new skills, especially as the African energy industry embraces digitization, and finding a way to develop a strong African regional content,” stated NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman at the African Energy Chamber.
The committee is the second committee of the chamber’s advisory board to be announced recently, disclosing that it has put together leading industry experts, executives and public representatives to support several initiatives over the course of 2020 and 2021, such as local content development, natural gas and energy transitions, the promotion of an enabling environment and the expansion of exploration activities.
