AOW 2026: Africa must move from participation to ownership – Eswatini Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini

• Eswatini Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini has urged African countries to move beyond participation in externally controlled industries and build businesses capable of owning and controlling the continent’s resources and economic future.

• Dlamini called for greater investment in African enterprises, skills, research, technology and local capital, while advocating a pragmatic energy transition that uses oil and gas revenues to finance cleaner energy systems.

• ND Western CEO Lanre Kelejaiye backed the call, stressing the need to develop African talent, shared infrastructure and technology to strengthen the continent’s energy industry and competitiveness.

Speaking at the Africa Oil Week (AOW) Energy Summit in Accra on Wednesday, September 2, 2026, Dlamini said Africa’s vast natural resources would not automatically translate into prosperity unless the continent developed the knowledge, capital, technology and enterprises needed to create value from them.

He said;

The Prime Minister argued that African businesses and expertise were too often treated as inadequate until they received validation from outside the continent, a situation he said must be deliberately addressed through stronger local institutions, financing and skills development.

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He called for governments to use public procurement to create opportunities for African companies, while financial institutions, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and development finance institutions should be more willing to provide capital to indigenous enterprises.

Dlamini also urged African universities and research institutions to focus on developing solutions to the continent’s own challenges, stressing that Africa must produce a generation of entrepreneurs and industrialists capable of building and owning businesses rather than simply seeking employment in foreign-owned industries.

He said.

The Eswatini Prime Minister also rejected the idea that African countries must choose between fossil fuels and renewable energy, arguing instead for a pragmatic transition that uses existing resources to finance cleaner and more sustainable systems.

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Dlamini said;

He maintained that oil, gas and other natural resources remain strategically important to Africa’s energy security and industrialisation, but said revenues generated from them should be channelled into renewable energy, infrastructure, technology and African enterprises.

Dlamini further called for climate finance and technology transfer from developed countries, while cautioning African nations against depending entirely on external support.

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He said;

Dlamini used the AOW platform to outline Eswatini’s ambition to expand its domestic electricity generation capacity to more than 1,000 megawatts by 2030, with the country seeking to move from being predominantly a consumer of electricity to becoming a contributor to the regional power market.

He said the strategy would combine hydropower, biomass cogeneration, clean coal technologies and utility-scale solar supported by storage, while also encouraging greater participation from independent power producers.

The Prime Minister said investment in Eswatini’s energy sector must deliver more than infrastructure, insisting that projects should create jobs, develop skills and strengthen indigenous companies.

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Dlamini’s call for greater African ownership came alongside a strong appeal from ND Western CEO Lanre Kelejaiye for increased investment in the continent’s human capital, infrastructure and technological capabilities.

Kelejaiye said Africa’s oil and gas industry required highly skilled professionals who could combine technical expertise with leadership, mentorship and cross-functional experience.

He highlighted the need for structured training, succession planning and deliberate efforts to retain young African professionals within the energy industry.

Kelejaiye also pointed to infrastructure as a critical enabler of Africa’s energy ambitions, arguing that shared infrastructure could reduce costs, improve reliability and make it possible to develop smaller discoveries that might otherwise remain commercially challenging.

He further advocated for greater use of technology across the energy value chain, including subsurface tools, production analytics, asset integrity systems and digital workflows.

The ND Western CEO proposed what he described as a “capacity compact”, under which companies invest in people, governments and regulators provide stable and practical frameworks, and industry players treat shared infrastructure and technology as tools for multiplying Africa’s capabilities.

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The discussions form part of AOW:Energy 2026, which is being held in Accra from September 1 to 3 and brings together governments, national oil companies, operators, investors and other energy-sector stakeholders to discuss Africa’s energy future.

The central message from the summit was clear: Africa’s energy future will depend not only on the resources beneath its soil, but on its ability to develop the people, businesses, technology, infrastructure and capital needed to control and benefit from those resources.