Sylva mulls bank for oil, gas investment for Africa

Timipreye Sylva, minister of State for Petroleum Resources has made a case for the setting up of a financial institution to focus on investment in the oil and gas sector.

The minister made this known, Monday, during an event tagged “Nigerian-Equatorial Guinea bi-lateral meeting” which was held in Abuja.

Sylva posited that if Africa is insisting on developing its oil and gas resources, it must also set up structures to fund its insistence. He advocated for Africans to come together under the aegis of the African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) to set up an energy bank with a view to financing our oil and gas sector.

The minister lauded the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill and its signing into law describing it as “a watershed moment for Nigeria.

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In a statement by Enefaa Bob-Manuel, deputy director of information of the ministry quoted Sylva as saying that Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria shares some historical similarities, they have growing on the back of oil and gas”. He added that, with the PIA in effect, we now feel that it is now time for us to go out of Nigeria to actively market this investment environment.

The minister enjoined African oil-producing countries to explore areas of possible collaboration of investing within the African territories.

According to the statement, Sylva had early in the year, stated that he was in Equatorial Guinea where he signed an MoU which embodies the security of the Gulf of Guinea and the supply or access to gas. He restated the declaration of this decade as the decade of gas with an underlying focus on gas development and sued for partnership between and among Africans as a way of ensuring progress.

In his remarks, Gabriel Mbega Obiang Lima, the minister of Natural Resources and Hydrocarbons of Equatorial Guinea, congratulated Nigeria on the historic passage of the PIB and expressed optimism that the PIA will bring a lot of investments to Nigeria while stressing that the PIA is a sign that Nigeria is open for business.