… says African leaders should empower talented young professionals to attract greater energy investment
Oredola Adeola
Mohamed Cheibani, Regional Head of the Canada-Africa Chamber of Commerce in Mauritania, urged young African oil and gas professionals to embrace emerging opportunities in the continent’s energy and gas sectors instead of attributing their challenges to government inaction.
He stated this during a panel session on Youth Talk at the Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference in Lagos, Nigeria, where he addressed leading African energy stakeholders.
According to him, Africans should strive toward unlocking investment opportunities within the continent and outside and stop blaming the government for not providing the opportunities.
“Opportunities exist but you need to be courageous and interested in unlocking them,” he said. 
Cheibani stressed that openness to learning new things within the local market is critical, noting that if Africa needs more investment, it should push forward talented generations of professionals that can support the unlocking of opportunities within investment.
He emphasised the importance of competence, talent, stability and local context in driving investment.
“We must make sure we have strong young leaders with competence to execute projects. Investment takes us to the importance of competence and talents, stability and local context is expected,” he said.
Stressing the importance of local content, Cheibani called on African leaders and industry professionals to be sure that they have the right skilled professionals.
“Local content is strategic to financial benefit of oil and gas contract, it will also help strong local companies and individuals that can push to have more investment opportunities,” he added.
Highlighting Mauritania’s strategic strengths and growing opportunities in the gas and energy sectors, Cheibani focused on the country’s new investment strategy centred on openness, an improved business climate, and strong international partnerships.
He underscored Mauritania’s major gas potential, from the Grand Tortue Ahmeyim (GTA) project project, marking a key milestone in gas production and exports, to the BirAllah field, one of the region’s most significant discoveries.
He maintained that with the right competence, openness and strategic local content framework, adding that African countries can unlock vast opportunities in the energy sector with its youthful population.
