Cape Town, South Africa — Experts at a high-level panel discussion on the topic “CNG: A Lower-Carbon Energy to Grow Africa’s Communities”, during the recently concluded African Energy Week 2025, have called for urgent investment in gas infrastructure across the continent to promote access to clean and affordable energy.
The panel featured Yann Yangari, Partner at Flamboyant Services; David Pappoe, CEO of Energas West Africa Limited; Dr. Riverson Oppong, CEO of the Chamber of Oil Marketing Companies (COMAC); and Declan Nwokoro, Managing Director of NNPC Gas Marketing Ltd. (NGML).
The experts underscored Africa’s vast gas potential, estimated at about 630 trillion standard cubic feet, and emphasized the need to harness these resources to drive industrial growth, expand energy access, and improve living standards.
They noted that Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) plays a critical role in reducing carbon emissions and providing a cheaper, cleaner alternative to traditional fuels such as diesel and petrol. CNG, they said, offers significant benefits for transport, power generation, and domestic use, while supporting Africa’s transition to a lower-carbon economy.
Leading the discussion, Dr. Riverson Oppong, CEO of COMAC, urged African leaders to recognize that the continent is both a producer and consumer of gas, and therefore must prioritize the development of infrastructure to increase local utilization instead of focusing on exports.
He noted that countries such as Nigeria and Ghana already use gas for electricity generation and criticized the ongoing plan to construct a gas pipeline from Nigeria to Morocco to supply Europe, arguing that such investments should instead focus on meeting Africa’s own energy needs.
“Instead of building a gas pipeline from Nigeria to Morocco to serve European countries, we should build pipelines to supply our own. Africa first,” Dr. Riverson asserted.
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