Capacity building, critical to Africa’s energy future

By Stephen Bolu

Contrary to the new normal where technology leads business reformations, growth conversations in Africa’s business landscape, particularly in Nigeria energy sector, often begin with capital.

Investment, infrastructure, and asset acquisition are frequently treated as the clearest indicators of progress. While important, they do not tell the full story of what is required to build a stronger, more resilient energy sector. As Africa continues to confront the realities of energy access, industrial growth, and long-term competitiveness, it is becoming increasingly clear that capital alone cannot deliver the level of transformation the continent’s energy sector needs.

For Africa to build a more competitive energy future, it must invest just as deliberately in the people who will power it. The strength of the sector will be measured not only by the projects financed or the assets acquired, but also by the quality of the professionals equipped to operate, manage, and lead them.

This is why talent development must be treated as a central part of Africa’s long-term energy future.

Oando’s continuous investment in human capital reflects a clear conviction that one of the most enduring competitive advantages in African energy lies in homegrown talent. Beyond its Oando Graduate Acceleration Program (OGAP), the company’s participation in career fairs and early-career engagements forms part of a broader effort to meet young talent where career decisions are being shaped and expose them to the realities of the industry.

This broader commitment to talent development was reflected in Oando’s participation at the fifth edition of Covenant University’s Career Fair, themed “Future Ready: Skills, Choices & Career Readiness.”

As competition for graduate opportunities continues to intensify across Nigeria, career fairs are becoming increasingly important platforms for connecting students with industry leaders, exposing them to workplace realities, and helping them build the networks that often prove critical in launching successful careers.

For universities, such engagements serve as a critical bridge between academic learning and industry expectations. Now in its fifth edition, Covenant University’s annual career fair has become an important component of the institution’s employability strategy, helping students gain firsthand exposure to workplace realities, industry trends, and the professional networks required to navigate an increasingly competitive labour market. Beyond creating immediate opportunities for engagement, initiatives like these play a broader role in preparing graduates for a smoother transition into the world of work and strengthening the pipeline of industry-ready talent available to the economy. In many cases, such platforms create opportunities for students to make meaningful impressions and build relationships long before a CV is submitted or a vacancy is advertised.

For Oando, the platform provided an opportunity to contribute directly to this talent development agenda by connecting students with industry perspectives and helping them better understand the practical expectations of the workforce. More importantly, it reflected the company’s broader belief that talent development must begin long before recruitment.

This point is especially important at this stage of Nigeria’s oil and gas evolution. For decades, much of the country’s technical depth and leadership training were shaped under the guidance of international oil companies, which historically held many of the sector’s most significant operating and technical roles. Today, as indigenous companies such as Oando play a more central role as operators, the responsibility for developing talent has also shifted. The next generation cannot only be trained to participate in the industry; they must be prepared to lead it, manage it, and take fuller ownership of its future.

This is what gives Oando’s engagement with early-career talent deeper significance. Career fairs are not simply platforms for visibility or recruitment. They are opportunities to shape awareness, build confidence, and help young people understand that the energy industry is entering a new phase, one that requires a different level of preparation, ownership, and leadership from the generation before them.

Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is being reshaped by new regulation, digital transformation, local content expectations, sustainability considerations, and a global energy system in transition. Those entering the sector today must therefore be prepared for an industry that is more complex, more competitive, and more consequential. They must understand not only the theory of oil and gas, but the commercial realities, operational discipline, and strategic thinking required to deliver long-term value.

This is where deliberate industry-led capacity building becomes essential. Through OGAP and similar graduate-focused initiatives, Oando is helping to bridge the gap between academic learning and practical industry experience by creating structured pathways for exposure, mentorship, and professional development. These programmes are important because technical competence is not developed by chance. It is built through access, guidance, and sustained investment in people.

For students and graduates in Nigeria, the energy industry can often appear highly technical or difficult to access, but such engagements help make the sector more tangible. They also help young people see that the industry is not static. It is changing, and the opportunities ahead will require a generation prepared not just to enter the sector, but to help shape its direction.

Within the wider African context, this approach carries even greater significance. Energy security cannot be reduced to the availability of resources or the attraction of investment; it also depends on whether the continent has the domestic capability to develop, manage, and sustain those resources for long-term value. While partnerships and investment remain important, they must be matched by knowledge transfer, local participation, and the development of African professionals who understand the continent’s realities and development priorities.

Human capital must therefore be recognised as a form of infrastructure. Without deep local capacity, capital loses part of its transformative power. Projects may be financed but not sustainably delivered. Assets may be acquired, but not fully optimised. Opportunities may emerge but not necessarily convert into long-term national or continental value.

Oando’s approach recognises this connection. As an indigenous energy company, its role extends beyond participation in the oil and gas value chain to include contributing to the development of the people who will sustain that value chain in the years ahead. Its engagement with future talent is therefore more than a corporate initiative; it is a strategic investment in the long-term resilience and competitiveness of the sector itself.

As Africa continues to pursue a more secure and competitive energy future, investment in people must keep pace with investment in assets. Financing requires knowledge, infrastructure requires expertise, and ambition requires preparation. Capital may fund Africa’s energy future, but its people will build it. That is why capacity building is as critical as capital.

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