The Honorable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and current President of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO) has said that the main purpose of inaugurating the Executive Board of which he did on Tuesday, 22nd January, 2019 was to further the reforms needed in the Organization’s structure as well as to reform and recapitalize the Fund of the Organization whose proposals were already embodied in documents that he said should be studied and further recommendations which can enrich the documents, made for him to present to his co-Ministers at the upcoming Council of Ministers of African Petroleum Producers’ Organization.
On 11th of June, 2018, Kachikwu has emerged the President of African Oil Producers Association taking over from Michael Boukar, a Chadian. At inauguration of Kachikwu as President of APPO, the Nigerian Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo challenged the APPO Peers to reform the Organization.
The reforms needed and identified for APPO include increased synergy that would no doubt help mobilize the investment needed to facilitate and to deliver the major infrastructure required by the continent, such as trans-border gas and oil pipeline, joint refineries, gas plants and others.
Concerning the APPO Fund for Technical Cooperation, said to be undergoing recapitalization to enable it better fulfill the role for which it was established, the Nigerian Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo also demanded for some re-tweaking of the structure of APPO. The Nigerian Vice President has stressed that it could be remodeled after similar institutions that had succeeded, like the OPEC Fund, where even non-OPEC members can begin to invest. He puts it this way: “It is time for us to open up the APPO, such that none APPO member countries and private institutions should be able to invest.” He further said that “The APPO fund ought to operate as an autonomous entity, independent perhaps, from the APPO secretariat, in the same way that the OPEC fund operates independently of OPEC itself.
Additional to the above structural and Funding reforms, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu has been addressing the issues of economic diversification to address the needs of post oil economic development in African continent and he disclosed that the inauguration of the Executive Board today is a further step to concretize the needed APPO reforms.
The inaugurated members of the Executive Board of Appo are Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan (Nigeria); Nigerian Delegate – Dr. Folasade Yemi -Esan (Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Nigeria; Salissou Moussa Diakite, Nigerien; Valérie Commelin, Chadian; Epigat Fernand, Gabonese; André Joseph Okondza, Congolese; Doukoure Ousmane, Ivorien; and Chananti Sahgui Tiatti, Beninese.
Kachikwu therefore urged the inaugurated Executive Board members to carefully look at both documents – the reforms needed in the Organization’s structure as well as the reform and recapitalization of the Fund of the Organization and ensure that at the end of the ongoing summit Executive Board of APPO in Abuja, a guiding document which will ensure that those who will be engaged at the works of the Organization will have the fulfillment that they are working for an Organization that can ensure their happiness and interests of member States.
Earlier, the Secretary of African Petroleum Producers’ Organization (APPO), Mahaman Laouan Gaya), who espoused the origin of the Organization which he described as an Organization of African countries producing petroleum. He disclosed that it was created on January, 27, 1987 in Lagos, Nigeria to serve as a platform for cooperation and harmonization of efforts, collaboration, sharing of knowledge and skills among African oil producing countries. With its headquarters in Brazaville, Congo, the Organization changed its name from African Petroleum Producers’ Association to African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) in 2017. With the Organization now known as APPO and spearheaded by Nigeria, there was renewed efforts to mitigate African Nations’ dependency on Western Technology and Western Markets for oil export revenues.
Among members of APPO are Nigeria, Algeria, Ghana, Congo, Chad, Benin, Cameroun Gabon, Egypt Libya, South Africa, Mauratania and Sudan.
For APPO Leadership and Decision Making, there is the Council of Ministers at the Apex followed by the inaugurated Executive Board and then the Secretary General and managing Directors of National Oil Companies or Corporations.
Olujimi Oyetomi
Press Unit, Ministry of Petroleum Resources.
