Employers in the renewable sector of Nigeria’s energy, oil and gas industry have been urged to invest more in talent development in order to tackle the dearth of talent required for the critical roles in the country’s energy transition journey.
This call was made by the General Manager, Human Resources & Admin at Lekoil Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Kike Fajemirokun, who noted that this issue is not solely financial but inherently human.
In an article titled Africa’s Renewable Energy Future: The Talent Emergency, Fajemirokun stated that by 2030, the EU is projected to generate at least 42 per cent of their energy needs from renewable sources; exceeding the current capacity twice over, as outlined in the Renewable Energy Directive.
He noted that governments the world over have begun to pay closer attention to their sustainability obligations now more than ever before, even as the Paris 2030 deadline gleams.
While urging employers not to see investment in talent as a zero-sum game, the human resources manager said, “happy workers are productive workers” is not cliche – it is indeed a fact.
“According to IRENA, Africa’s clean energy transformation has the potential to create eight million jobs, but we are not yet equipped for those jobs.
The talent emergency is particularly acute in the renewable energy sector, where talent still remains concentrated in the West, despite the abundance of enthusiastic, yet unskilled candidates in Africa,” he said.
Fajemirokun, who acknowledged the brain drain that has forced a vast majority of highly skilled workers to migrate, stated that the concensus transition in global energy systems is underway, and investments are being redirected to meet this opportunity in the EU, Australia, China, and Japan, with Africa beginning to respond to this shift.