Angola Oil&Gas returns for its fifth edition from October 2-4 under the theme, Driving Exploration and Development Towards Increased Production in Angola.

Consulting company EY has joined the Angola Oil&Gas (AOG) conference – scheduled for October 2-4 in Luanda – as a gold sponsor. The sponsorship reflects the company’s commitment to supporting the growth of the Angolan oil and gas market by providing a suite of financial and corporate services. 

With teams across 150 countries worldwide, EY leverages its experience in global markets to offer data- and technology-driven services to Angola’s oil and gas industry. The consulting company supports the growth and operations of companies through assurance, tax, law, strategy and transaction services. During AOG 2024, EY will share insight into these services and how financial and corporate support will help Angola reach its production goals. 

Organized by Energy Capital&Power, AOG is the largest oil and gas event in Angola. Taking place with the full support of the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas; national oil company Sonangol; the National Oil, Gas and Biofuels Agency; the African Energy Chamber; and the Petroleum Derivatives Regulatory Institute, the event is a platform to sign deals and advance Angola’s oil and gas industry. To sponsor or participate as a delegate, please contact sales@energycapitalpower.com. 

In Angola, EY represents one of the oldest professional service organizations active in the market, having entered the country 67 years ago. The company combines innovation with pragmatic thinking to deliver actionable strategies for clients. 

Additionally, EY provides SME support by offering financing solutions tailored to Angolan companies. Speaking during AOG 2023, Rui Bastos, Partner and Global Business Risk Consulting Leader at EY, stated that, “SMEs are facing an interesting challenge, particularly in this part of the world. The biggest issue we see is their ability to relate sustainability-related projects to financially viable projects.” 

As such, the company aims to provide support for SMEs as they address these challenges, thereby promoting enhanced economic opportunity for companies – such as in the oil and gas industry. 

With a focus on creating long-term value growth for clients and building trust in capital markets, EY brings extensive experience and expertise to Angola’s premier oil and gas event. The company’s services are designed to assist energy and resources companies in navigating challenges such as decarbonization, digitization, cost pressures, and geopolitical uncertainty. 

This year’s conference will serve as a premier platform to address critical issues in Angola’s oil and gas market, including strategies to curb production decline, expand exploration and new discoveries, diversify the economy, and promote a just energy transition by developing natural gas resources. 

For more information about how you can get involved in AOG 2024, visit https://AngolaOilandGas.com or contact sales@energycapitalpower.com.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital&Power.

Tough action will be taken against those who violate traffic laws and cause deaths and injuries, President William Ruto has said.

The President said road negligence must stop and road safety measures enhanced, including the adoption of modern technologies to enhance monitoring of traffic violations and the introduction of instant fines.

Saying that no one will be exempted from road safety compliance, President Ruto pointed out that the government is dealing with corruption among traffic police officers because the vice makes them to turn a blind eye to speeding and reckless driving which then causes accidents.

“Our justice, law and order agencies must coordinate and sustain robust law enforcement by ensuring that offenders are detected, apprehended, prosecuted and punished swiftly and transparently,” he said.

President Ruto made the remarks during the launch of the National Road Safety Action Plan 2024 -2028 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi.

Cabinet Secretaries Kipchumba Murkomen and Ezekiel Machogu, Nairobi Governor Johnson Sakaja, and European Union Ambassador to Kenya Henriette Geiger among others were present.

He said the launch of the plan will facilitate a multi-sectoral approach to road safety.

“The government is committed to supporting the implementation of the National Road Safety Action Plan by providing resources, addressing legal and regulatory gaps and enhancing the capacity of the National Police Service,” he said.

President Ruto called for stronger collaboration between the National Transport and Safety Authority and the Traffic Department of the police in the implementation of the safety action plan.

He said the plan must lead to the reduction of accidents, deaths and related injuries by 50 per cent in the next one year.

“The number of road accidents must come down. It is my expectation that we will be the administration that will deal with this challenge,” he said.

The President pointed out that road accidents were overwhelming hospitals with high numbers of critical injuries.

He said the government is working with development partners not only to improve road infrastructure, but also revamp road safety in the country.

President Ruto pledged that the government will enhance safety awareness campaigns to nurture a national culture of safety and responsible road usage.

The President urged the public to contribute to ensuring road safety across the country by playing their part.

“Evading inspection, neglecting vehicle safety maintenance, reckless behaviour on the road and paying bribes to avoid accountability are serious forms of contributory misconduct, which must be punished,” he added.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of President of the Republic of Kenya.

OPEC Director of Research Dr. Ayed S. Al-Qahtani will deliver a keynote address at the upcoming Invest in African Energy (IAE) 2024 forum in Paris, affirming the importance of African oil supplies in global affairs.  

Home to six OPEC member countries, the African continent is playing a growing role in global supply discussions, accounting for a rising percentage of OPEC-led production. Libya and Nigeria represent Africa’s two largest producers – according to OPEC’s latest monthly oil report – both producing approximately 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd). While Angola left the organization at the end of last year, OPEC is said to be in talks with Namibia – which could be Africa’s fourth-largest producer by 2030, on the back of prolific offshore discoveries – and other African nations that represent the next generation of African oil production.

IAE 2024 (https://apo-opa.co/49krKXM) is an exclusive forum designed to facilitate investment between African energy markets and global investors. Taking place May 14-15, 2024 in Paris, the event offers delegates two days of intensive engagement with industry experts, project developers, investors and policymakers. For more information, please visit www.Invest-Africa-Energy.com. To sponsor or participate as a delegate, please contact sales@energycapitalpower.com.

Consisting of 22 nations, OPEC and its allies have been committed to maintaining oil supply cuts to boost barrel prices amid economic uncertainty. The alliance has implemented cuts of more than five million bpd since the end of 2022 and is extending voluntary cuts of 2.2 million bpd into mid-2024. The IAE forum will feature technical discussions around Africa’s oil outlook, exploring supply, demand and price forecasts based on various energy transition scenarios.

“IAE 2024 welcomes the participation of OPEC in leading critical supply discussions, as African producers seek to incentivize new exploration and develop recent offshore discoveries. The forum will share high-level insights into current and future efforts to ensure market stability, as well as highlight Africa’s growing influence on the global energy stage and the importance of African solidarity,” says Sandra Jeque, Event&Project Director at forum organizers, Energy Capital&Power.  

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Energy Capital&Power.

By Lillian Barnard, President of Microsoft Africa (www.Microsoft.com).

It’s difficult to imagine a time before the widespread adoption of mobile technology in Africa – particularly where financial services are concerned. For millions of unbanked people, transactions were limited to cash, postal services or even the barter system. Now, in much the same way as mobile payments completely disrupted the status quo, AI has the potential to propel the fintech industry into a new era of financial inclusion. And perhaps most exciting of all is that Africa is not simply catching up with AI-powered developments, but surging ahead with innovative solutions that have considerable implications for the underbanked. 

Already, homegrown fintech companies have completely changed the way people in Africa transact, helping to reduce reliance on cash transactions.

Innovative payment solutions have revolutionised access to essential services, such that millions of people can now afford everyday necessities like airtime. In fact, research from McKinsey (https://apo-opa.co/3W55k98) has shown that these items are now available to lower-income households at up to 80 percent less of the cost associated with traditional banking players.

And when one considers that half (https://apo-opa.co/3vMMjxz) of Africa’s population is still unbanked or underbanked, we can begin to appreciate just how dramatic an impact the fintech sector has had on the very nature of financial services in Africa.

The net result in Kenya, for example, is that the adoption of digital payment solutions helped increase financial inclusion by as much as 25 percent (https://apo-opa.co/3W91wUp) in just 15 years. 

A cloud-powered payment revolution

More recently, cloud technology has created a whole new realm of possibilities for fintech companies looking to accelerate financial inclusion, helping them scale their operations, create operational efficiencies and spin up new innovations overnight.

African payment giant, Flutterwave (https://apo-opa.co/3Q6oMP1), is a case in point, having recently shifted its legacy infrastructure to Microsoft Azure with a view to expanding its operations and processing high volume payments at scale. As one of the continent’s safest and most reliable payment companies, Flutterwave has been at the forefront of Africa’s payment revolution. Its multiple payment modes, including local and international cards, mobile wallets and bank transfers, continue to change the game for many African people and businesses on a daily basis.

AI ushers in a new era

Now, building on the progress enabled by the cloud, the world is undergoing a new wave of technological transformation, driven by AI. Suddenly, businesses don’t need vast datasets or powerful computers to benefit from the technology, with most of the necessary compute power now available through cloud providers. And as the barriers to AI adoption have fallen away, so new tools are giving rise to substantive productivity gains and revolutionising industries such as fintech.

While AI is providing champions of financial inclusion like Flutterwave with the tools they need to expand their reach, it’s also helping to fast-track access to financial services (https://apo-opa.co/4aVKblR) in a vast number of different ways. 

Traditionally, cost has been a significant barrier for local SMEs when it comes to the adoption of digital financial services. In fact, it’s estimated that around 90 percent (https://apo-opa.co/3U22OxC) of transactions in Africa are still cash-based, and this is often because cash transactions don’t carry any fees. However, the ability for AI to lower the cost of the entire ecosystem of financial services – from fraud detection to risk management optimisation and compliance improvements, can lead to substantial operational efficiencies and cost savings, which can ultimately be passed on to the end-user.

Banks, for example, can make their services more affordable to their customers by rolling out AI-powered chatbots to handle routine queries, at the same time sparing them from having to travel to a bank branch.

Already, fintech companies are helping their customers to improve their financial literacy by using these same chatbots as affordable advisors. Drawing on the power of AI, these bots can produce personalised recommendations such as budgeting strategies so that the user can make a more informed financial decision. Mosabi (https://apo-opa.co/442aQuU), a company, in Sierra Leone has even gamified the process to help customers elevate their financial behaviours.

What’s more, AI tools can analyse data from client discussions, producing legal documents in simple language and at a fraction of the cost of what it would typically take to draft a contract, extending access to these services in terms of both understanding and affordability.

Real-time lending at scale

Perhaps most important of all, many fintech companies have access to vast amounts of data, meaning that when AI is introduced to the equation, they have formidable ability to offer real-time digital lending on a major scale.

M-KOPA (https://apo-opa.co/4cZW10a), for example, leverages Microsoft’s AI services to manage lending risk and provide financial forecasting. The company provides digital financial services to underbanked consumers by combining digital micropayments and IoT technology, drawing on cloud technology to process over 500 payments per minute, and making it possible for 3 million people across Africa to access essential services such as solar power systems, digital loans, health insurance and smartphones.

The use of AI has helped M-KOPA achieve significant increases in customer repayment performance – particularly for the follow-on products and services that M-KOPA offers to customers once they have successfully repaid their initial loan. In fact, more than 440,000 additional credit lines have been made to customers following payment of their first product.

With the digital payments market maturing quickly in Africa and AI rapidly gaining traction among fintechs on the continent, the implications for accelerated financial inclusion are significant.

The question is – how do we ensure fintechs are able to fully realise the AI opportunity?

Much of the answer lies with capacity building, from infrastructure to connectivity, skills and essential digital tools. With improved internet access, fintechs have the potential to access more data, and with larger volumes of data available, they can provide more innovative services.

It’s for that exact reason that Microsoft continues to make significant investments to bolster the continent’s digital capacity – from new connectivity solutions through our Airband Initiative to essential cloud infrastructure through our enterprise-grade datacentres in the region. Through key partnerships, such as our collaboration with Safaricom, we’re upskilling hundreds of thousands of developers to build new entirely new digital ecosystems.  

Regulation is another hurdle that must be overcome to accelerate AI-powered payments in Africa. Though more African countries are expected to introduce regulations to guide AI development and deployment, relatively few have strategies and policies in place at a national level. In fact, many FSI organisations in Africa view the risk of new safety and regulatory requirements as one of the biggest stumbling blocks to wider implementation of the technology, hindering greater progress in financial inclusion.

Finding new ways of collaborating across industry and government is critical to the advancement of AI in financial services. To this end, Microsoft continues to engage with the African Union and national governments in priority markets to help strengthen our collective role as responsible stewards of AI.

For some time now, Africa has been at the forefront of the payment technology revolution – empowering millions of people with access to financial services. Imagine what more could be done through the unprecedented power of AI? To turn that opportunity into reality tomorrow, we must begin by ensuring the groundwork for AI transformation is done today.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Microsoft.