By Eyo Nsima
The Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has charged Africa’s National Oil Companies’ Chief Executive Officers to rescue 600 million Africans from energy poverty and another 900 million people on the continent with access to clean cooking fuel.

The minister, who gave the charge at a meeting of CEOs of Africa Petroleum Producers Organisation, APPO, member countries, in Abuja, said: “We urgently need to plan for our energy future. Our goal should be energy sufficiency in order to ensure energy security, end the ravaging energy poverty in the continent and drive the continent’s overdue economic breakthrough.

“It is unacceptable in this modern age that 600 million people in Africa have no access to electricity, and 900 million have no access to clean cooking fuel. Our imminent mission should be to rescue this vast number of our people from this grip of unjustifiable abject energy poverty.

“We should harness all our abundant and varied energy resources, including fossil fuels and renewable resources, in order to assure not only availability and accessibility, but also affordability and sustainability, to meet our increasing energy demand”.

He also said: “Energy transition is all about providing clean energy, and not about discriminating between energy sources. All available energy sources will be required to end the high level of energy poverty in Africa and achieve the sustainable development goal of providing access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”