Africa must turn energy wealth into industrial power, says IPPG Chairman

By Onu Okorie

Africa stands at a defining moment in its energy history, blessed with vast oil, gas and renewable resources but still burdened by crippling energy poverty, inadequate infrastructure and a widening investment gap.
That was the central message from the Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), Adegbite Falade, at the opening ceremony of AOW: Energy 2026 in Accra, Ghana, where he urged African governments, investors and energy companies to build a continental coalition capable of converting natural resource wealth into industrial development and improved living standards.
In his keynote address on September 1, Falade said Africa’s next energy chapter must be fundamentally different from its past, arguing that the continent could no longer afford an economic model in which crude oil and gas were exported while Africans continued to suffer energy poverty.
“Crude out, refined product in. Gas out, energy poverty retained,” he said, describing the historical pattern of Africa’s hydrocarbon development.
“That model generated revenue for treasuries. It did not build industrial economies. The next chapter must be different. Africa’s energy must first power Africa.”
Falade, whose group represents 34 indigenous exploration and production companies in Nigeria, said the organisation’s first official appearance at AOW: Energy marked an important step in extending the influence and experience of African independent producers beyond national borders.
He said Nigerian indigenous operators, once marginal participants in the country’s oil industry, had emerged as custodians of more than half of Nigeria’s crude oil and gas production following the divestment of several onshore and shallow-water assets by international oil companies.
According to him, indigenous operators accounted for less than three per cent of Nigeria’s total oil production just over three decades ago, but now contribute more than 50 per cent of national crude oil and gas output, while also playing an increasingly important role in domestic gas supply.
He said the results of indigenous ownership were already becoming visible, with about 200,000 barrels per day added to Nigeria’s national production by just three operators within the last 12 months.
“The question the market asked, quite fairly, was: can they run it?” Falade said.
“The answer, increasingly, is on record.”
He said assets previously in decline had been returned to growth through renewed investment, while idle wells were being re-entered, gas flares captured and monetised, rig activity increased and long-delayed field development plans brought back to life.
For independent operators, he argued, such assets represented more than entries in a large global portfolio.
“For an independent, that asset is not the fifteenth item in a global portfolio review. It is the entire company,” he said.
A Continent of Plenty, a People in Need
Falade painted a stark picture of Africa’s energy contradiction.
The continent, he said, holds more than 125 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves and over 620 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, accounting for significant proportions of global oil and gas resources.
Yet Africa attracts only a small share of global exploration spending and upstream capital deployment.
The consequences, according to the IPPG chairman, are evident in both energy access and industrial development.
Africa produces millions of barrels of crude oil daily but lacks sufficient refining capacity, forcing many countries to continue importing refined petroleum products at enormous cost.
Similarly, significant quantities of African gas are exported even as hundreds of millions of Africans remain without electricity.
Falade said close to 600 million Africans still lacked access to electricity, while nearly one billion people continued to depend on wood and charcoal for cooking.
For him, these figures captured Africa’s greatest energy challenge: “abundant resource, deficient capital, and an unacceptable energy poverty gap.”
He insisted that hydrocarbons should no longer be viewed merely as commodities for export but as instruments for industrialisation, employment and economic transformation.
“Africa carries both an opportunity and a responsibility: to explore more, invest more, and produce more — not only to supply the world, but to power ourselves,” he said.
Nigeria’s Indigenous Energy Revolution
Falade attributed the growth of indigenous Nigerian producers to deliberate policy choices, including the implementation of local content requirements, the Petroleum Industry Act and a series of executive interventions aimed at improving investment conditions.
He said Nigerian-owned companies were increasingly expanding across the energy value chain and entering areas previously dominated by international oil companies.
Indigenous operators, he said, now contribute more than 60 per cent of domestic gas utilisation in Nigeria.
He also pointed to increased domestic refining capacity as evidence that African countries could derive greater value from the resources they produce.
The emergence of the Dangote Refinery, which Falade said was processing around 650,000 barrels per day, demonstrated the economic benefits of refining crude closer to the source.
According to him, domestic refining could reduce fuel imports, conserve foreign exchange, create employment and support Nigeria’s transition towards becoming a major exporter of refined petroleum products.
However, he cautioned indigenous producers against seeing the transfer of assets merely as a commercial victory.
“Every barrel and every molecule of gas now under our members’ control comes with an obligation,” he said.
That obligation, he explained, includes long-term investment, sound environmental and social practices, good governance and ensuring that energy development delivers lasting benefits to host communities.
“Our license to operate will be judged not by our production numbers alone, but by whether the communities around our fields have electricity, water, jobs and dignity,” he added.
Financing Africa’s Energy Future
A major concern raised by the IPPG chairman was the retreat of international financiers from African oil and gas projects as global investment increasingly shifts towards accelerated decarbonisation.
Falade said the withdrawal of traditional development finance and international capital had contributed to the stalling of numerous energy projects across the continent.
This, he argued, was particularly troubling for Africa, which contributes less than three per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions but continues to face widespread poverty and energy shortages.
Africa, he said, therefore has both a sovereign right and a moral obligation to utilise its natural resources responsibly to lift its people out of poverty.
“The window to monetise these resources is fast narrowing,” Falade warned.
“If Africa does not move decisively to explore, invest, and produce today, the opportunity to transform our economies through our natural wealth will pass us by.”
He identified the proposed Africa Energy Bank as a major instrument for strengthening the continent’s financial independence.
The bank, established through a partnership between the African Petroleum Producers Organisation and Afreximbank and headquartered in Abuja, is expected to support energy projects that may struggle to obtain financing from traditional international sources.
But Falade said African institutions would need a strong pipeline of viable projects to succeed.
“An institution built to finance Africa’s energy future is only as useful as the pipeline of investable projects our industry puts in front of it,” he said.
Infrastructure: The Missing Link
Falade also highlighted the severe shortage of gas infrastructure as one of the greatest obstacles to Africa’s energy ambitions.
Natural gas already plays a significant role in electricity generation across the continent, but further expansion, he said, would require massive investment in pipelines, processing facilities and related infrastructure.
He contrasted Africa’s pipeline network with that of Europe, arguing that the continent’s existing infrastructure was inadequate for a landmass of Africa’s size and population.
“Reserves without pipelines are simply stranded molecules benefiting no one,” he declared.
He called for African countries to treat gas pipelines, electricity grids and export infrastructure as strategic continental assets rather than isolated national projects.
The objective, he said, should be to create systems capable of supplying domestic markets while also supporting competitive exports.
AfCFTA and the Case for an Integrated Energy Market
The IPPG chairman also placed the African Continental Free Trade Area at the centre of the continent’s future energy strategy.
He said the success of the West African Gas Pipeline, which transports Nigerian gas to Benin, Togo and Ghana, demonstrated that African energy resources could move through African infrastructure under agreements negotiated by African countries.
However, he said Africa’s energy industry remained fragmented, with individual national markets often too small to support large-scale and competitive energy value chains.
AfCFTA, he argued, provides an opportunity to develop regional industries in refining, petrochemicals, gas-to-power and other energy-related sectors.
Falade proposed the creation of a dedicated AfCFTA Energy Services Protocol to facilitate cross-border energy trade, infrastructure development and pipeline projects.
He also called for a Pan-African Technical Exchange Programme that would allow skills, expertise and operational experience to move more freely among producing countries.
Gas and Renewables: Not a Choice Between Two Futures
Rejecting the notion that Africa must choose between hydrocarbons and renewable energy, Falade argued that the continent should pursue both.
Africa, he said, possesses some of the world’s most abundant renewable resources, including solar, hydropower, geothermal energy and wind.
Yet the continent continues to attract only a small share of global clean-energy investment and has developed only a fraction of its renewable potential.
Installed renewable capacity has grown substantially over the past decade, but Falade said much more investment was required if Africa was to close its electricity access gap.
“This is not a case of renewables instead of gas, or gas instead of renewables,” he said.
“It is a case of both, deployed together, to close Africa’s energy access gap and power our own industrialisation.”
That position formed part of his broader argument that Africa’s energy transition must reflect the continent’s development realities.
“We are not asking for permission to pollute,” he said. “We are asserting the right to develop.”
He said Africa must pursue growth while ensuring that its energy systems are developed with the lowest possible carbon intensity.
Building the Next Generation
Beyond capital and infrastructure, Falade identified human capacity as a decisive factor in Africa’s future energy development.
He proposed that new upstream partnerships across the continent should include clear provisions for training, technical exchanges, secondments, academies and technology transfer.
These measures, he said, should become contractual expectations rather than optional commitments.
“The talent that will run Africa’s oil and gas industry a generation from now is being built, or neglected, in the partnerships we sign today,” he said.
Falade’s message to governments was equally direct.
African producers, he said, needed fiscal stability, faster approvals and respect for contractual commitments.
In return, governments could expect increased production, greater investment and stronger revenue generation.
He urged financiers and insurers to assess African energy projects based on evidence rather than perceptions, while calling on international partners to view the growing role of indigenous producers not as an end to cooperation but as the beginning of a new partnership model.
“The divestment era is not an exit,” he said. “It is an invitation to a new kind of partnership — technology, capital and capability alongside local ownership and local urgency.”
As delegates gathered in Accra to discuss the future of the continent’s energy sector, Falade urged them to move beyond speeches and transform the conference into a platform for concrete agreements and investments.
“Africa Oil Week is not merely a conference,” he said. “It is a marketplace of ideas, a catalyst for deals, and a platform for partnerships that will define Africa’s next energy chapter.”
The task before Africa, he concluded, was clear.
“We have the geology. We increasingly have operators. What we must now build is the conviction — and the coalition — to convert.”