*Unlocked over $1bn in investments across the energy value chain
*FID to be taken on two projects including a multibillion-dollar deepwater project by mid-2025
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Special Adviser on Energy to the President, Olu Arowolo Verheijen, has highlighted some of the achievements recorded by the Presidency in the last one year.
Verheijen who spoke at the ongoing African Energy Week in Cape Town, South Africa, on the theme “The Future of Energy: Shaping the Workforce of Tomorrow,” lauded President Bola Tinubu’s bold steps in transforming Nigeria’s energy sector.
According to her, within the last 12 months, Tinubu’s administration has been able to clarify the regulatory roles to create an enabling environment for investments and introduced reforms targeted at reducing high operational costs and project execution timelines.
She further noted that the current administration 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, she added.
Verheijen said: “Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) took 20 years to be passed into law and given Presidential assent, in 2021. 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 finalized. We have unlocked over $1 billion in investments across the value chain and by the middle of 2025 we expect to see FID 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. We are not held back by the outdated approaches and assumptions of the past. We are open, daring, and eager to leave a legacy that will stand the test of time.
“I am here today to make the argument that one of the most important ways in which we can shape tomorrow’s African energy workforce is to look beyond the traditional places and welcome a new crop of talent, especially women, and young people, who possess a global perspective and reach and understand the context of the 21st century, and are equipped with the fresh perspectives and bold energy to design and implement radical new solutions to lingering problems.
“While efforts to attract women into STEM and the energy sector are important, attraction alone isn’t enough, retention and advancement to senior levels are equally crucial. The real differentiator for women breaking through from mid-level to executive roles is sponsorship. Women need powerful advocates who actively support their growth and position them for opportunities and ensure their representation at the highest levels. I would like to tell you a story – a personal story – about a bold experiment in Nigeria that illustrates my argument. On May 29, 2023, a new President assumed office in Nigeria. His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a man known for bold subnational reforms and innovation during his two terms as Governor of Nigeria’s most populous state and largest subnational economy.
“It is not because women are less qualified, or less available, or less endowed with what it takes to lead at the highest levels. No. It is simply that men have simply come to enjoy the longstanding serendipity of being more likely to be sponsored into influential positions. It is that simple. And it is now time for women to enjoy equal access to this, to being bet upon, to being given more chances.
“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.”
