Africa urged to harness resources for energy security
ACCRA: Ghana’s Chief of Staff, Dr Julius Debras, has called on African countries to explore how the resources available on the continent can be harnessed to achieve self-sufficiency, particularly in the energy sector.
Dr Debras made the call during the in the recently concluded Africa Oil Week in Accra, where he delivered a speech on behalf of Ghana’s President John Mahama.
Dr Debras stressed that if Africa secures a reliable energy supply, it will help boost economic growth, while the issue of employment will also cease to be a major challenge as there will be assured industrial development.
He noted that, with regard to Ghana’s upstream petroleum sector, the government had put in place robust strategies to attract reliable investors to the sector.
According to Dr Debras, African countries must carefully consider the type of investors coming to invest in the energy sector, stressing that they should have strong financial capacity to deliver tangible and timely benefits to the sector.
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For her part, African Union Commission Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy Lerato Mataboge said Africa’s youth were ready to embrace the ongoing energy transition across the continent.
She advised that what is needed now is African solidarity in establishing effective mechanisms to ensure that the transition towards development is accompanied by major changes in the use of technology, with priority given to innovations developed by African youth.
She explained that the African Union (AU) had put in place an industrial integration framework to promote regional cooperation in the energy sector, which would ultimately translate into reliable energy supplies across the continent.
Africa Oil Week was held from September 2-3, with Tanzania represented by officials from the Ministry of Energy, the Petroleum Upstream Regulatory Authority (PURA) and the Zanzibar Petroleum Regulatory Authority (ZPRA).
