By Ajong Mbapndah L
With a remarkable journey spanning an impressive twenty-six years, Kola Karim has been navigating the ship at Shoreline Energy International since January 1997. Renowned for his vast experience in the power solutions realm, Kola Karim founded Shoreline Energy dedicated to power generation and manufacturing of power equipment, operating across sub-Saharan Africa.
Kola believes that Africans should take their destiny into their hands in addressing the energy needs on the continent. “We as Africans are the only ones who can sit around the table and decide the future of this continent; for good or for worse. We have tried centuries of other people deciding; maybe we should try our century now and add value to the continent and maybe the difference will be clear,” Kola Karim says.
Shoreline Energy is recognized for acquiring infrastructure and energy assets and acting as an investor in business and trade. The company encompasses a range of operating businesses including Mota Nigeria Limited, a leading construction company; DBN Energies, specializing in EPC contracts for the oil and gas industry and Shoreline Power Company, a prominent player in power generation.
In an interview with Kola Karim, CEO and Managing Director of Shoreline Energy International, he sheds more light on Shoreline Energy and what it will take to address the energy needs of not just Nigerians but the continent.
May we start with an introduction to Shoreline Energy?
Kola Karim: Shoreline Energy International’s focus business is infrastructure, as in construction, building and owning infrastructure, and oil and gas exploitation. Today, we are producing 49 thousand barrels a day out of Nigeria; we sit on a field of over 1.2 billion barrels of reserves and three and a half TCF of gas in Nigeria. We have some exploratory assets in other parts like in Namibia. But we are focused on the energy sector because energy is life and life is entwined with energy for all.
Shoreline Energy is today one of the prominent companies that we have around, may we know how this vision was conceived?
Kola Karim: It was conceived in the early 2000s when the Nigerian government started pushing the flag and barrier; the Nigerians must participate in the oil and gas sector. By so doing, the government encouraged, cajoled, and pushed the international oil companies that were operating in Nigeria that they must sell assets to locals, instead of shutting these assets down. Remember that a lot of African governments only make money when the natural resource has come off the ground by way of either taxes or royalties.
But if the international oil companies discover the resource, they put it on their global balance sheet as part of their reserves. The host country gets nothing and that is unfair. So, the Nigerian government decided that you are not going to shut down an asset; if you shut it down, we are going to take it away from you. So, you should sell it to people who are going to exploit it for the benefit of all, and that is what pushed the local content policy where Nigerian companies have now become intermediate giants in oil production, and this is one of the processes that forced us into the market.
In terms of addressing the energy needs of Nigeria and the continent in general, how will you situate the importance of Shoreline Energy?
Kola Karim: Our main focus is to utilize the gas resource. Since the advent of decarbonization, a lot of the global financial institutions are holding back on capital spending on oil and gas exploration and production. If you look at a country like Nigeria or Senegal, all these countries have huge reserves. Nigeria alone has over 210 TCF of gas reserves found. If we can focus and exploit that and put those into production and the market in various gas forms plus exporting to the world.
With the advent of the problem between Russia and Ukraine, Europe’s energy is negative and today they are looking at other sources and that is why you see the new outlook where there is pressure being put on the West African Gas pipeline being extended to Morocco to Spain. You are looking at the Northern AKK pipeline going to the desert into Tunisia and Italy. These are great opportunities for Africa to come and put its natural gas into the global market.
With the pressure that the Western world is putting on the continent about fossils, what is your position at Shoreline Energy?
Kola Karim: Look, the same Europeans have made a U-turn on gas. The focus is for us to double down on our efforts in exploiting our natural gases right across Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Egypt, these are huge gas reserves across, and we can build a very formidable network and become a major exporter of natural gas, in all forms into the world.
There is also the complaint that we often hear about the investment climate, how is it like in Nigeria, and how challenging has it been for you to build Shoreline Energy from scratch to where it is today?
Kola Karim: The investment climate is all about our own story. One thing is clear, global capital is looking for return and there is a lot of global capital. What Africa has done wrong is that Africa has left its stories to be told by other people. If the Africans tell their own stories and the narrative is from our point of view, then the person you are looking at investing on the continent sees it from your point of view. If we leave it to third parties to tell our stories, more so if they are from a competing environment, how do you want them to tell your stories rightly?
Africa has 1.4 billion people, 54 countries, and a very young population; that is a huge market. Yet, if we tell our stories rightly, the economic benefit of investing in such a market is very clear. But what you read about is aid, wars, everything that is negative. So, if you are an investor and all you read about are the negatives, that is not the place where you are going to put your money. The key is Africa is full of opportunities but also if you think about one thing that is crystal clear is that democracy has its roots in Africa, rule of law holds roots in Africa. If we tick the boxes and tell our own stories to the world, then Africa is an obvious advantage destination for investment.
Talking about success, you are one of the biggest success stories that the continent has today. To the younger generation that looks up to you as a model, what are some success tips you can share with them?
Kola Karim: Be true to yourself. Also, be loyal to your values and never be afraid to work hard. You require luck but be true to yourself. This is the most serious issue confronting Africa’s young people. We must be willing to be true to ourselves and our values and have a clear goal in mind. I usually think about Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook. He was loyal to himself because he decided to make it work. As he grew older, he became more aware of his own values and limitations. And we’ve done the same thing with other business models. We have a lot of young Africans out there, and all they have to do is roll up their sleeves, be true to themselves, be devoted and focused, and the sky is the limit in anything they want to do.
Africa has huge opportunities. Regarding natural resources, Africa has over 30% of the world’s natural resources. When it comes to financial services, Africa has the fastest growth in financial services in the world. When it comes to technology, we’re talking about payments, mobile telephones, and everything else that’s energizing telecommunications.
Then there’s food, quick-moving consumer items, and the simple necessities of life. Since the arrival of mobile telephony, Africans have a better understanding of what’s available. So, all we have to do is ignite it and develop and burn our increasing internal market. Consider how you may capture a portion of the 1.4 billion market or become a link in the network. There are so many young, smart, intelligent Africans. All they need is to focus on purpose in making a difference.
Kola Karim is also a product of the African Diaspora. How can African governments leverage the tremendous resources that the Diaspora has to meet their development needs?
Kola Karim: The Diaspora needs to take the initiative also. The Diaspora that knows better, who is most exposed to the Western global norms should take the opportunities and the advantage that wherever we are in the world, when we see gaps in our economy and opportunities, we go and engage the governments. Do not sit in Canada, U.S. UAE, Philippines and think that someone is going to remember me because I am smart, and I am from the Congo. Or I am a very good lawyer, and I am from Nigeria or I am a fantastic engineer and I am from South Africa. The key is that we need to engage and come up with proposals or things that can make a difference. That is where we realize the ambition of those of the Diaspora that can inter-fit well.
I was just talking to a friend that there’s a friend of mine in South Africa who had an idea, and he went and pitched it to the Kenyan government today he is very high up in the Kenyan government. This is because the government said you come and do it. We should continue to stand tall and be proud of what we know and what we think we can add as value to our countries. That is what the Diaspora needs, and it creates only good things as success.
What is your take on the ongoing African Energy Week 2023? Satisfied with the way things have gone so far?
Kola Karim: The African Energy Week is the confluence of where the now, tomorrow and the future of Africa’s power brokers in the energy sector will sit to continue discussing, proposing, and doing the right transactions that will be to the benefit of this continent. No one is going to do it for us. We as Africans are the only ones who can sit around the table and decide the future of this continent; for good or for worse. We have tried centuries of other people deciding; maybe we should try our century now and add value to the continent and maybe the difference will be clear.
*Culled from November Issue of PAV Magazine
