In his opening address to the African Energy Week (AEW) 2025 conference and exhibition, on Tuesday, African Energy Chamber executive chairperson NJ Ayuk urged African countries to produce “every drop of hydrocarbons” that they could find. (AEW is being held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.)

“It’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ that’s going to build the roads and schools that our people need,” he affirmed. “The world’s wealthy nations – you decarbonise, while Africa industrialises.”

Nevertheless, the main focus of his address concerned the least polluting of the fossil fuels – gas. In particular, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), especially in regard with the urgent need to spread clean cooking technology across the continent.

“LPG is going to be big,” he highlighted. “And we’re not going to stop using it.”

More generally, he asserted that there was a need to drive the development of “beautiful green gas” across the continent. But the continent had to deal with “financial apartheid”, that is, discriminatory financial rules, which was hampering the development of gas projects in Africa. This would be “our next battle”.

But Africa had to take responsibility for its own development.

“It’s really important to do our own job,” he stressed. “We need to move fast. We have a window of opportunity to develop this industry.”

Governments had to cut the red tape that was obstructing the development of especially (but not exclusively) gas projects. This red tape imposed serious delays on these developments. “It shouldn’t take five, sometimes 20, years to approve projects,” he stated.

Although expressing great affection for it, he explicitly rebuked the AEW host country. “South Africa is a mess, when it comes to oil and gas development.” The country allowed small groups of activists to block projects. Yet South Africa needed energy. He urged the country to pass legislation that would cut the red tape that hampered the development of such projects.

“The future for Africa is not for us to predict, it is for us to create!” he affirmed.