The minister said that setting up an African energy bank remains the only available alternative for African countries to continue to explore the vast hydrocarbon resources in the continent since western nations were scaling down funding for hydrocarbon exploration across the world due to the race for renewable energies.
In a welcome address during the visit of the Equatorial Guinea Minister of Hydrocarbon Mr Gabriel Lima, in Abuja, on Monday, Sylva said the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act has heightened the call for the establishment of the energy bank, stressing that the Act will open up the oil and gas sector for huge investments going forward.He said ”The PIA is a watershed moment for us in Nigeria. This is the time for us to get out of Nigeria to market this investment environment.
Analising the issue further, the minister said “If we go into more exploration in Africa, we will find more oil and gas and must we leave it under the ground because the other countries are racing for renewable energy? We must find a way to explore it and that’s why we need an energy bank along the line of the African Development Bank ”.
While calling for synergy among African nations, the minster noted that no country in the world would help Africa develop other than Africans themselves and therefore called for unity among nations in the continent. He said “none of us can grow without each other. It is not all the time that we run to Europe or America or elsewhere for support. We need to keep talking and we need mutual cooperation to solve our own problem. We can achieve this under African Petroleum Producers’ Organization’s ”.