By Nik Ogbulie (in Cairo)
Nigerians and the entire African community need to rally round Afreximbank in an effort to achieve its new African economic integration model which has caught the global community like wildfire.
Engineer Emeka Okwuosa, Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer, Oilserve, a Nigerian major operator in the oil and gas sector, made this observation while speaking to Moneyreport Magazine on the sidelines of the IATF2023 in Cairo, Egypt.Okwuosa, whose company was one of the major exhibitors at the seven days trade facilitation programme said that Afreximbank’s ideas on leveraging our collective strength to develop Africa is a project which has been seen to be a systematic approach to the challenges of underdevelopment for Africa and calls all diligent African governments and institutions to embrace the mandate for the future of the fledgling continent whose cooperation among themselves has remained about 17% as against those of other continents that have inched close to 80%.”Oilserve’s participation and engagements in this event by Afreximbank are ways of joining the bank’s initiative and to cue into the Intra-African System to be able to contribute into other activities in Africa.
We have to develop infrastructure, trade, and many other efforts needed to move our continent forward in line with the Afreximbank dream”, Okwuosa noted.He explained that attending the event provides a collaborative effort to every enthusiastic African institution and operator in the economy. “For me, being in Egypt is very important.
We can work with other countries within Africa in so many fields of development which is also an aspect of the much desired economic integration.
Afreximbank has made a lot of impact on Africa than we can ordinarily achieve while doing things individually. We need to encourage Afreximbank by participating and allowing it grow its ideas on African Development. Deals are being signed and more will be signed.We have been holding good discussions and are really engaging more”, he noted.
He feels that Africans must be grateful to Afreximbank and would want them to do more because they have made a lot of difference in Africa.Okwuosa’s Oilserve is the largest Nigerian EPC company with a huge portfolio worth several million dollars in pipeline assets and infrastructure. It is continentally recognised as an African company in pipeline business.
The company has really contributed in driving pipeline business, espapecially in Nigeria and has been key in the Trans-Saharan Gas pipeline project which originates from Nigeria through Niger Republic and terminating in Morocco with the intention of linking the European gas market. It has been considered as the smartest African export trade nexus of the century.
In Nigeria, the company is currently driving the most ambitious gas infrastructure project better known as AKK(Ajaokuta, Kaduna, Kano) which will not only make gas distribution cheap but to propagate the green and clear environment projection and contribute to the eradication of carbon emissions. The company employs about 2000 engineers and other hands helping also to assist in the logistics of laying pipes and managing it along some 640 kilometers.While eulogizing Afreximbank’s efforts, Okwuosa noted that, “Afrca has a load of resources but what is important is the development of those resources in a most cost-effective manner.”
