By Obiabin Onukwugha
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, has called for a deeper regional integration across the African continent. This comes as Lokpobiri also reaffirmed Nigeria’s leadership role in advancing Africa’s energy security.
The Minister made the call while speaking at the ongoing Africa Oil Week (AOW) 2025 Ministerial and CEO Leadership Forum in Acra, Ghana.
This was contained in the press statement by Special Adviser on Media and Communication to the Minister, Nneamaka Okafor, on Monday.
Lokpobiri stressed that integration remains the most effective strategy to end Africa’s energy poverty, noting that shared infrastructure, harmonized standards, and technical expertise will enable the continent to secure its energy future.
He described the over $120billion the African continent spends annually on hydrocarbon imports, as capital flight. He emphasised that these monies could be challenged to Africa’s development priorities, stressed the need to to exceed it.
“This is capital flight. These funds should remain within Africa to fuel our own development priorities. Investors make long-term decisions based on stability and predictability. Africa must harmonize its policies to attract and retain investment,” the Minister stated.
He further stated that the real challenge for Africa is not access to capital, but the lack of aligned regulatory frameworks and fiscal regimes.
Lokpobiri announced the creation of a West African Reference Market (WARM), an initiative to leverage Nigeria’s growing refining capacity to supply petroleum products across West Africa and beyond.
On the global energy transition, the minister submitted that the Paris Agreement does not require abandoning fossil fuels, but rather a reduction in emissions, and urged African nations to unite around a shared purpose.
“Africa contributes only 3% of global CO₂. We cannot lead an energy transition when we don’t even have energy. Our priority must be to responsibly harness our abundant resources to power growth.
“Africa has the market, the population, and the resources. What we need now is to keep value within our continent and finance our own energy future,” he stated.
