Whither Oil Producing Nations And Their Future

BY EMMANUEL IBE KACHIKWU

As the price of most crude types began lifting measurably in the last two months, rising to over $60 per barrel for Brent, optimism has risen that the doomsday predictions for oil may be coming to an end.

This development is fantastic for oil producing nations like Nigeria, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, the Arab countries and indeed for most Member Countries of OPEC.

Before we go on the celebration mode however, let us tarry awhile and spend the stressless next few months to begin a dialogue on ‘whither oil producing Nations and their future’.

In previous write-ups in this column and in various books, I have set out what should be the focus of a country like Nigeria as it manages its petroleum resources. Aside from this, it is also time for regional and global institutions like OPEC, ARA and APPO, and supportive global and regional financial institutions like IMF, AFDC, IFC, amongst others, to begin serious dialogue on how to monetize a lot of latent resources still undeveloped and use the resulting revenue for programmed development in these countries.

Rather than the haphazard debt programmes embarked on by most resource-rich nations that leave them in perpetual debt overhang and make development nearly impossible, why can’t these institutions model a resource to liquidity credit portfolio that allows these nations to monetize unexplored resources and develop vital infrastructure in the relevant countries.

This will put money on the table to develop income yielding infrastructures in these countries. Such a model would enable organisations like OPEC and APPO in collaboration with reputable global financial institutions perhaps to provide needed guarantees and financing packages that would help these resource-rich countries grow.

The financial institutions may also package countries for stock exchange funding.

As you reflect on Africa particularly, and the ever recurring questions about resource income misapplication, underdevelopment and under transparency, I believe such global initiatives and dialogue will help refocus countries on the urgency to focus on infrastructure and private sector driven policies. It will hopefully limit the pool of free funds available to leaders outside long term invested funds and drive up transparency.

I call for this global dialogue initiative between Regional Energy and financial organizations and Member Countries to unleash and monetize the full power of regional natural resources for economic development.

It astounds me how intellectual creative resources unleashed by private individuals like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, have been continuously monetized even before full nurture to expand the resultant corporations. YET, countries struggle to unleash their natural resources to fund adequate development. There remains a gaping opportunity to explore new paths to successful funding of infrastructural development in resource-rich nations.

I have been intellectually driven in the past to Op-ed a related but similar road map for Africa which I will publish next week.