BY AKUDORO GLORIA 

Secretary General of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO), Dr. Omar Ibrahim, has implored Nigeria to broaden its leadership in local content and industrial capacity, extending its influence to other African oil-producing nations.

Ibrahim said this at the 2025 edition of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. He urged the Nigerian government and private sector players to look beyond national interests and embrace a continental outlook in developing Africa’s energy sector.

He advised that Nigeria’s leadership role should not end at policy or production, but must translate into strategic expansion into other African markets.

“Nigeria can do even better, much better. When I was an advisor to four successive Ministers of Petroleum Resources between 2009 and 2020, I witnessed how ministers from other African countries were writing to our ministers, seeking to send delegations to Nigeria to learn about our oil and gas industry. Nigeria was a model then, and it can be again, but on a much larger scale. Why do you limit your production capacity and innovation to Nigeria? Why not extend it to Gabon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Angola, or Mozambique? You have the capacity, don’t box it within borders,” he said.

Challenging Nigerian entrepreneurs to rethink ownership models if they aim to compete globally, the SG stated, “If you want to expand to Zimbabwe, why not cede 5% of your company’s shares to Zimbabweans to help you gain market access? This ‘I own it all’ mentality will not take us far. Even Shell, Total, and BP don’t have majority ownership from their home countries. Yet in Africa, we still think national instead of continental.”

The APPO leader asserted that the Organization’s current strategy includes building an integrated African oil and gas market, anchored on regional cooperation, innovation, and shared resources.

“We are working to establish regional centers of excellence across the continent,” he announced, naming Nigeria as a “great potential candidate” for one of the centres due to its track record in training and capacity building.

Dr. Ibrahim further underscored the impending inauguration of the Africa Energy Bank, a collaborative venture with AfreximBank, asserting that it would liberate African countries from reliance on Western financial sources for energy initiatives.

According to Ibrahim, “the bank is being launched here in Abuja in the next two months. We have the charter, the agreement, the treaty, and most importantly, the capital,” he revealed. “For 70 years, Africa has produced energy for others. Now is the time to produce energy for ourselves, for our people.”

He lauded Nigeria’s Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for its exemplary leadership and significant impact throughout the continent, revealing that its commendable performance prompted a special invitation for the NCDMB to become a member of the steering committee for the Africa Local Content Roundtable, scheduled for September 2025.