AEW Now Staple For Actors In Africa’s Energy Development Space-ASAFO’s Jude Kearney

By Ajong Mbapndah L

The African Energy Week-AEW is the most consequential conference of its kind anywhere in the world as no other gathering and no other organization influences the dialogue on Africa’s energy development the way it does, says Jude Kearney Managing Partner at ASAFO & CO.

A consistent face at the AEW since its inception, Mr. Kearney says progress of the event has been most remarkable with key actors engaged in the African energy development space now counting on it.

“Africa and its constituent nations have learned the value of greater retention of benefits from its resources and that economic development, when pursued for the benefit of Africa’s populations, is its own reward,” says Mr. Kearney who boasts over forty years of diverse experience working on the continent.

What is your take on the 2024 edition AEW 2024?

Because the Africa Energy Chamber, with assistance from Energy Capital and Power as logistical organizer, has consistently increased the popularity and substantive success of the AEW conferences, each year I sound like a broken record when I say that the conference is the best it’s ever been. But the fact is, this conference is the most consequential conference of its kind anywhere in the world. No other gathering and no other organization influence the dialogue on Africa’s energy development the way AEW does, so each year the conference draws nearly twice the crowd it attracted in the prior year. So, this year’s conference was literally the biggest and best.

You have been there since the inception of AEW in 2021, what are some of the changing dynamics you have seen?

There have been many major changes and some changes that are subordinated to the major changes but important in their own right. I couldn’t begin to name all of the important new features which this conference has brought to the discussion on Africa’s energy resources, but three highly relevant changes are the following:

1. There is now a genuine—and ongoing-- dialogue between the organizers and the delegates. That creates an evolving and continuous refinement of key energy policies relevant to the Continent and it allows for African governments and those private sector participants committed to Africa’s energy development to have seats at the table in terms of the publicized narrative about African energy policy.

2. There is a commitment among the organizers to a balance between governments and producers. Other conferences have tended to favor producers in their presentation and to limit or channel sovereign input into the discussion.

NJ Ayuk and his colleagues intentionally designed AEW, in part, to reformulate the balance of public commentary and inputs at conferences like this so that ALL key stakeholders can provide vital data and perspectives on the question of Africa’s energy future. 3. Again, Ayuk, through AEW, has single handedly introduced the importance of reducing Africa’s energy poverty and insisted on the constant acknowledgement of that imperative. The fact that this was never a key feature in these types of gathering before is less important than the fact that this issue will forevermore be vital to the discussion of how to utilize Africa’s energy resources.

Could you shed light on some of the discussions and the message you tried to pass along in the diverse panels you participated in?

Apparently, the wages of my past presentations is to be “invited” to make more presentations at successive conferences. I say that jokingly, of course: I felt privileged to present at five different panels at AEW 2024. The subject matter of the panels differed considerably as they dealt with wholly distinct aspects of the energy production and energy finance processes. But my core messages were in fact consistent across those different panels: in each presentation, I thought it important to: (1.) acknowledge African sovereignty in decisions on how and when to produce and utilize a nation’s natural resources and (2.) the importance of private sector inclusion in the production of and benefit from the exploitation of a nation’s natural resources, not just for immediate gain but because it helps to ensure that knowledge and expertise in resource production exists among that nation’s professional class in the future.

What do you think of Africa’s continuous push and self-financing efforts to sustain its energy fortunes?

Funding for certain energy types has drastically diminished and morphed in a number of ways in the wake of important climate change concerns. That fact makes it inherent that the public and private sector stakeholders in Africa’s energy production ecosystem seriously explore new and innovative ways of attracting and enabling financiers of Africa’s energy resources. This imperative will likely trend only towards a diminishing pool of financiers—including self-funded, or partially self-funded, investment entities. But the good news is that Africa’s resources still enjoy extremely high demand, such that those financiers who are willing to participate in the production and further development of these resources can be handsomely rewarded for doing so.

For an event of this magnitude, we still see a timid presence and participation of the US, from the seasoned expert that you are, how do you make the case to them for stronger participation and engagement with Africa on events like this?

While I definitely agree with the premise of this question, I’d like to defer providing a full comment on how to change that dynamic. In other words, there may be an improvement in that metric by virtue of the recent elections (hope springs eternal) and a number of other industrial factors which highlight Africa’s role as providers of key industrial minerals and other inputs.

As we are doing this interview, it has been confirmed that Donald Trump will be the next US President, what could this mean for US-African ties, and any policy recommendations or ideas to the incoming administration on how to engage with Africa on energy and broadly speaking other trade issues?

Well, as you’d imagine, I’m a bit hesitant at this early stage in the transition to predict the impact of the election results. What I can say from a recent historical perspective on US involvement in African industrial development is this: each party has had notable and long-lasting positive impact on aspects of US/Africa trade and development policies. Even in his first term, for instance, Donald Trump was purposeful in instituting certain policies which his administration thought would foster greater commercial engagement between the US and African countries and assist in the development of key African industrial sectors, such as power. So, let’s hope that we see more of that—in a number of key sectors—from the new Administration.

For ASAFO and partners that you manage, can you shed light on the services it offers and some of its African operations?

Thanks for giving me the chance to put a plug in for our dynamic, global and Africa-centric corporate transactional law firm. We are made up of a number of renowned practitioners in Africa, Europe and the US, each of whom are known for thought leadership in their respective practice areas and each of whom has years of experience in providing complex and expert advice to private and public sector African clients and or clients who are engaged in African transactions. We are a full-service firm with expertise in a number of areas vital to African commerce, with special recognition for our expertise in mining, oil and gas transactions, public international law disputes and private equity. Anyone wishing to get more specific detail on Asafo & Co should consult our website at www.asafoandco.com.

You are one of the most experienced hands-on US -Africa ties, what changes have you seen on the continent, what do you think is working and what needs to be improved upon?
Ajong, what a great question. I have indeed been an advisor on African legal matters and a student of Africa’s evolving approaches to development and use of its assets. I could probably write a book on the many changes I’ve witnessed in my nearly forty years of engagement with the Continent. They span from issues of governance, global thought leadership on key issues of resource management and humanity and efforts to greatly increase its leverage, on a country-by-country basis, in negotiating its share of the benefits realized from its natural resources. In short, the best changes I’ve seen are that, over time, Africa and its constituent nations have learned the value of greater retention of benefits from its resources and that economic development, when pursued for the benefit of Africa’s populations, is its own reward.

In 2025, the AEW will hit the historic 5-year mark, how excited are you about this and what will you be looking forward to for that edition?
I can’t wait. Without even knowing the theme or the layout of issues, I’m convinced it will be successful and very well attended because those engaged in Africa’s energy development space now count on it.

*Courtesy of November Issue of PAV Magazine