The Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, said Nigeria and other African countries must leverage technology and innovation to facilitate energy access and transition, has said.
Kyari said this in a lecture titled “Energy transition and energy accessibility – The new paradigm” which he delivered at the 30th convocation ceremony of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State.
He said one needs to leverage technology and innovation to support energy sufficiency, industrialization, job creation and economic growth.
The NNPC GMD insisted that while findings have shown that the global transition to renewable energy will continue to gain momentum, the pace may not be fast enough to offset the impacts of worldwide economic expansion and population growth.
Kyari stated that as a National Oil Company, the NNPC is determined to achieve carbon neutrality, using Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources as a low carbon alternative that will help improve access to energy to power the Nigerian economy.
He said, “To achieve a seamless transition to cleaner energy, global players must promote diversification of energy sources to improve global access to energy and reduce an absolute number of people without access to energy, especially in Africa.
“As Africa’s largest National Oil Company, we are building on the convergence of new technologies and innovative business models to guarantee access to energy for today and tomorrow.
“NNPC has set the necessary machinery to lead Africa in transition to low-carbon energy and renewables. We are deepening natural gas utilization under the National Gas Expansion Programme.”
