AfCFTA: Cross-Border Service Integration Will Boost African Oil and Gas Industry, Says Briggs

• A major stakeholder in Nigeria's oil and gas industry, Chief (Barr.) Dumo Lulu Briggs has called for integration in the African segment of the sector
• Briggs also called on African financial institutions to collaborate in order to provide the requisite capital to support oil and gas projects on the continent
• The astute technocrat warned relevant agencies to ensure the success of the African Continental Free Trade Area to revolutionise the continent

Texas - Chief (Barr.) Dumo Lulu Briggs, a prominent oil and gas investor in Nigeria has stated that cross-border service integration through the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA will boost the African oil and gas industry.

Briggs spoke on the theme 'AfCFTA: Cross-border service integration as enabler of project delivery in the African oil and gas industry' at the African local content collaboration session at the 2022 Offshore Technology Conference in Houston Texas, United States of America.

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He noted that AfCFTA represents a new optimism and the continental approach at a comparable scale is expected to have greater success in Africa.

Chief Briggs who is the chairman of Platform Petroleum Limited, said:

“Hopefully, collaborations would improve the intra-Africa trade flows which is a poor 15% compared to North America (48%), Asia (58%) and Europe (67%).

“Although recorded trade underestimates the volume of actual trade and if proper account was taken of the size of the informal trades, the African numbers would not look so out of line.

“Nevertheless, this statistic confirms that Africa trades with the rest of the world, not with itself, a trend which the AfCFTA aims to revolutionise through the creation of a single market for free movement of goods, services, and persons.”

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He said Africa can learn from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which became the largest economy globally with the 3rd largest labour force in the world in 2017 during its 50th anniversary.

Chief Briggs opined that of the 15% of trade reported as intra-Africa, oil and gas is estimated to account for 75%, indicating that the industry is central to the prosperity of the continent and can become an enabler for other sectors.

AfCFTA: Local content drive key to deepening sustainable growth in Africa, says Wabote

Earlier, the executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Engr Simbi Wabote stressed that African countries must leverage the robust platform and opportunities presented by the AfCFTA agreement.

According to him, the agreement is key to driving home the local content narrative to achieve sustainable growth and development in Africa.

Wabote made the call while speaking during the African Local Content Collaboration Session at the ongoing conference.

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Stakeholders call for robust funding to salvage Africa’s oil & gas industry

Recall that stakeholders in Africa’s oil and gas industry recently gathered in Lagos on Monday, March 7 at the African Local Content Investment Forum.

The event had three technical sessions structured around eliciting discussions among stakeholders on the future of the oil and gas industry in the continent.

Experts at the forum agreed that there was a need to develop a new business model for the development of the hydrocarbon sector in the continent.

Source: Legit.ng