Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Council of Ministers of African Petroleum Producers organization, APPO, in Abuja, Kachikwu stated that the only way growth would happen in this sector in the whole of Africa is through an inter-dependence approach.

He said, “The realities are that all over Africa, there are new finds of oil; massive exploration is going on. Everybody is enthused by the possibility of further harnessing new natural resources that we are going to use to develop the continent.

“The reality also is that finding the necessary finance for this is very difficult. Increasingly, with what had happened, especially with the tumbling of oil prices, over the last few years, nice that is has begin to come up — a lot of investors found it difficult to invest, not just in oil exploration activities, but in fact, even worst still, oil exploration activities in Africa.”

Kachikwu added that African oil producers must forge partnerships among themselves in various areas to foster growth, development and address the funding challenges that had hindered growth in the continent.

He said, “All of us must be able to hold hands and find a way of supporting one another, in terms of the research; in terms of the internal investments potentials and capabilities, and also help to drive the process.

“But more fundamentally, but it must be in a position to have a lot of best learning from some of the three or four major producer countries that have been in this for quite a long time, as the new ones are coming on board.

“We are, therefore, having to merge and juxtapose the rising profile of African oil production with the level of response that is required for purpose of integration, to enable us to achieve the objectives that we have.”