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Energizing Entrepreneurship: How NJ Ayuk Sees Natural Gas Catalyzing African

Industry

Thanks to recent discoveries of vast natural gas deposits, African has the potential to create a flourishing energy sector that will enrich the continent for generations to come, according to N.J. Ayuk, Chairman of the African Energy Chamber. 

The opportunity this presents for future prosperity isn’t guaranteed, however. Africa’s resources have traditionally been exported to wealthier nations, enriching other lands while providing few benefits to economies on the continent. But if African entrepreneurs make the right decisions, they has the potential to harness the remaining natural gas deposits to create jobs, build reliable energy grids, and fundamentally transform life for millions of Africans, Ayuk said. 

How it Happens 

As an example on how energy entrepreneurs can jump-start African economies, Ayuk pointed to the recent deal inked by the African company AlphaDen to build a hydrocarbon processing plant in Nigeria. 

“I think energy is always going to be a big issue. If you look at the AlphaDen deal, it's 60 million US dollars. It tells you that a lot of stuff that has to be done with natural gas has not really taken place in the continent,” he said. “And being able to really empower African entrepreneurs, small-scale producers, to be able to drive small scale biogas projects ... That first, this is not just gas testing for Europe or Asia. This is gas that's going to be used in Nigeria to industrialize Nigeria.”

By using a loan from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), AlphaDen relied completely on homegrown resources. The move wasn’t just financially sound, it was also a challenge to other businesses to follow their lead, Ayuk said. 

“What is even beautiful is that African entrepreneurs are engaging in doing this, and driving it,” he said. “In the past, we would have to wait for somebody to come from the United States or from Europe to do such a project here. But now you have Africans who have gained experience from either their work with the international energy companies, their work with other kind of institutions, being able to say, ‘We are not just going to be consumers, we are going be producers.’”

Using Natural Gas to Build a Better Africa

Natural gas is a mix of fossil fuels that can be burned to create electricity. It’s a relatively clean-burning source of energy, which makes it a perfect stepping stone to help Africa prepare for an eventual transition to renewable sources of energy, Ayuk said. 

“I think we have to use our natural resources in better prudent way. I think we have to come into it with the first state consideration, knowing that these are finite resources. They're not coming back,” he said. “And once you have it in your mind that these are finite resources and that they're not coming back, then you have to start knowing that we've got to be better stewards of what we use.” 

African entrepreneurs not only need to re-think their relationship to fossil fuels, they must also re-evaluate the deals that have hindered economic development in the past. 

“We have to walk away from issues that we have been victims of, that has created the resource scars. And these resource scars has really not been helpful to Africa,” Ayuk said. “So, we need to reverse the resource cost. And that, when we're using those natural resources, we have to say, ‘How do we build the value chain within Africa and create value addition and really drive it?’” 

Using Gas to Create Growth

Africa is home to some of the largest energy deserts in the world. Some 600 million Africans live without access to electricity. Homegrown natural gas companies have a duty to help solve that problem by creating jobs and building infrastructure, Ayuk said. 

“For example, right now, if you look at a country like Namibia with vast oil and gas discoveries, it shouldn't only be about Namibia producing natural gas and producing oil, and sending it abroad to other things,” he said. “They have to say, ‘How do we create more gas power projects and gas power projects with pipelines and other things, that we can power Namibia? And turn Namibia to become an industrial hub to supply goods, services, other things, across Africa.’” 

If countries like Namibia build reliable electrical grids, they can begin to work in neighboring states to provide more opportunities that will, in turn, bolster growth at home, Ayuk said. 

“With African solutions, we have to also start looking at how you really start generating power coming out of maybe biogas and all of that. And I think that is possible within Africa in itself. And when it comes to really driving energy, we need to increase the supply chain and infrastructure across Africa,” he said. “Once we do that, it'll be easy for us to start deploying energy across state lines, cross-border, intra-country. And so, that would be helpful.”

From there, the possibilities are limitless. Once Africans have reliable access to power and steady employment opportunities within the energy sector, worlds of potential will open, Ayuk added. 

“There's going to be a lot of larger gas projects that are going to come from African entrepreneurs, and that's going to really drive the continent,” he said. 

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NJ AYUK Singer

NJ AYUK began playing guitar and other instruments at his school's ceremonies and festivities when he was a child. Most of his seniors were aware of his unequalled musical talent and breadth of abilities. He started recording his own songs and uploading them to YouTube. He was able to gain significant success and fame in the musical field due to his musical ability and aptitudes.

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Africa has no shortage of people determined to improve its future, and it has what it needs to fuel their efforts: enormous stores of oil and gas resources. The last 12 months have been an exceptionally exciting time in terms of discoveries. For more NJ Ayuk details visit https://energychamber.org/

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NJ Ayuk, one of the renowned business advisors in South Africa, also voices his opinion in the same regards. As per him, any new businessman would come through the following challenges and he/she must stay prepared with all the true grit and determination towards their given aspirations.

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Introducing a Very Special Friend, Attorney, Author and African Oil Deal Maker, the one and only Mr. NJ Ayuk. Mr. Ayuk’s new Book “Billions At Play” #BAP @billionsatplay will be released in the coming days. 📍 And with luck our Team & “Doc” will be spearheading the Authors & Book’s impact on the industry. 📍 We highly recommend to all our #oilandgas professionals, and friends in the industry to quickly snap up a copy in the link below on Amazon! 🔗📍 https://amzn.to/2NxkNLP @njayuk 👉#leader #Business #SocialMediaMarketing #creativeagency #socialmediastrategy #creativemarketing #contentmarketing #businesses #videomarketing #socialmediaexpert #marketingagency #marketingstrategy #marketing #advertising #advertisingagency #adagency #salestips #solutions #books #book #politics #author #gasandoil #energyindustry #africa #bookstagram #politicalscience #uspolitics (at Houston, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3LpM7ZlfmD/?igshid=1n0777f4z4g3h

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[nj-ayuk1]

The African Energy Paradox: NJ Ayuk’s Take on Investment, Poverty, and Local Growth

For decades, African countries have sought foreign capital to help bolster their industries and boost their abilities. But too often, those investments have not benefitted the people of Africa. Now, as wealthy nations once again eye the natural of the African continent, N.J. Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, wants to ensure that new deals spread the wealth more fairly. 

“Huge investments are coming in, but these investments have to also have a role to play helping our issues that have to deal with energy poverty and also energy growth within the continent,” he said. “If all the investments and all the energy projects in the continent are only going to be about taking oil or natural gas or green hydrogen exported outside of Africa, then these investments would not necessarily have good impact on everyday people.” 

Since the War in Ukraine started, many European countries have sought to end their practice of buying natural gas from Russian. The search for other sources of fossil fuels has revived interest in previously abandoned projects in Africa and injected fresh interest in previously undeveloped avenues. 

Renewed interest in the African energy sector is an immense opportunity to not only provide income to some of the world’s poorest countries, but also to help kick-start a wave of economic growth by reducing energy poverty and providing a range of jobs for African people, Ayuk said. 

The African people are not eager to repeat the investment mistakes of years past. If new energy deals cannot produce results for everyday Africans, “You're going to see a backlash from the communities, because they want to see change,” Ayuk said. “They want to ensure that no matter what you're doing with energy, it is helping, and it is alleviating some of their key concerns, their key problems. That is important.” 

How Energy Projects Can Help

Ayuk, who founded the pan-African firm Centurion Law Group, has spent his career focused on the African energy sector. 

In his eyes, it’s crucial for all foreign investors to understand the need to build a functional energy grid for Africans—many of whom live with no access to electricity or deal with daily blackout—as part of any new deal that siphon away the continent’s natural resources. 

With the renewed interest shown by many American and European companies, this is the perfect time to insist on attaching requirements to contracts that will improve the countries and regions where fossil fuels are being extracted, N.J. Ayuk said. 

“I think we're going to see a lot more investment. Investment is going to grow in the continent in 2024,” he said. “You might going to see a rebirth of the $20 billion Mozambique LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas). That’s going to happen with TotalEnergies out of France. And you’re going to see a lot more exploration that will come from big U.S. companies, like ExxonMobil and Chevron.”

The Mozambique LNG project is a good example. The project was expected to produce 43 million tons of natural gas per year, but was shut down in 2021 after terrorist attacks killed civilians in the region. As part of its restart, TotalEnergies has committed to a plan to help locals beyond simply supplying jobs. Among the actions it will take are paying displaced families and providing newly built houses, improving access to fishing, and establishing a foundation to improve local life that will have a $200 million budget.

For N.J. Ayuk, that’s only the start. As outlined in his book, “A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History with an Energy Mix,” the goal of all new contracts in the energy industry should be to reverse the decades of exploitation that have gone before. He wants to bring more energy to more people, all across the continent—and not just from projects that harness fossil fuels. 

“You're going to see a big increase in renewable capacity that's going to happen, and a lot more investments going into place like Namibia when it comes to issues around green hydrogen and solar systems around the Maghreb region in the north of Africa, that's around Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt,” he said. “So, we going to see energy investment. What we have to look at carefully in 2024 is to ensure that the investment do deal with our energy poverty issues. Because it's not going to be helpful that you have a lot of investments, but at the same [inaudible 00:18:30] poverty issues in the continent. That's not acceptable.”

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#njayuk #energypolicy

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NJ Ayuk Chimes in on Principles and Energy Policy

Although the oil and natural gas industry is often painted as greedy, it has the potential to create immense good for the world’s most disadvantaged people — as long as leaders adhere to a few moral principles, according to NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber.

Speaking before a crowd of students at the 9th Annual Cambridge Africa Together Conference at the prestige Jesus College, University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, Ayuk explained how he planned to fight for social justice throughout his legal career, but the promise of expanded electricity to his home continent, where some 600 million people lack access to electricity, moved him to get involved with the industry. 

“The energy sector is going to be the most amazing sector. It is going to change Africa. Energy is life. Energy is power. Energy is everything,” he said. “If a crazy human rights activist like me can be doing energy today, I’ll say it this way: Those making energy decisions are not the chosen geologists or energy scientists. Whether it is renewables, whether it is oil or natural gas, we need you to get involved, whether on the policy side, whether on the finance side, whether on the engineering side. It’s really important.”

As the bestselling author, most recently of the prescriptive A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History With an Energy Mix, NJ Ayuk uses his position and influence to urge other countries to invest in Africa’s energy infrastructure. A lawyer by training, Ayuk was born in Cameroon and studied the law in the United States, where he found inspiration and mentorship from Black Americans who spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. 

NJ Ayuk: ‘For Africa, Gas Is Not Green’

One of Ayuk’s predominant themes is the mistreatment that Africa has repeatedly suffered as the result of one-sided energy deals. Too many times, the continent’s natural resources have been mined to benefit Western countries while leaving Africans poor and starving. 

Now, as the world confronts the realities of climate change and the need for more sustainable forms of energy, many of the countries that continue to rely on greenhouse gases have asked Africa to keep its oil and natural gas resources unused.

He explained to the rapt student audience that two months after all the pledges that came out of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, “Norway gave out 52 new oil and gas licenses. The United Kingdom opened their first coal mines in 30 years. They opened the North Sea up for drilling. Germany opened coal mines. The U.S. opened federal lands for drilling. But they told everybody in Africa to do nothing,” NJ Ayuk said. “‘You have to leave it in the ground.’ They consulted a witch doctor who told him that natural gas is green and we can finance it for Europe, but African gas is not green, so we cannot finance it, and we must leave it in the ground.”

He argued instead for fairer rules, pointing out that Western countries should be required to transition away from nonrenewable sources of energy sooner than African countries, which have contributed less than 3% of total greenhouse gases. 

“I think this kind of treatment of poor people is not something that we need to accept,” he said during his fireside chat in Cambridge. “I say this as somebody who has a good life. I don't need to do this, but I think your generation and everybody here, you need to be able to stand up for something and have a principle. We need to be able to really address these issues, and even in the polarized world, but be able to say that we need some fairness here. South Africa, Africa’s most industrialized country, lives with eight to 10 hours a day in the dark. They call it load shedding, the Nigerians call it blackouts. It happens all over.”

Students Can Use Idealism To Push for Equity, Says NJ Ayuk

To combat energy poverty, NJ Ayuk urged students to use their idealism to push for fairer treatment of Africans in the energy sector. Not only is it the right thing to do for the continent and the world, he said, it’s also a lucrative field. 

“There's going to be a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of money. Think about it,” he said. “To get to net zero, you’re going to spend about $80 trillion to $100 trillion to get there. That's a lot of money for you guys to miss out on, thinking that you don't want to be part of that. It's going to affect you anyway. We don't have the luxury to say ‘You have to be only in oil or gas.’ Heck, I want to see more Africans involved in the renewable energy space.”

NJ Ayuk shared, “One of my greatest heroes in history is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He talked about the arc of a moral universe. It is long and it bends toward justice. But surely it doesn't bend by itself. It's everyday people that get up, that move it, that shake it, whether left or right, and you keep shaking it.

“You keep shaking it and you make it bend toward justice because you are going to be that greatest generation and you are really going to change the world. As a 43-year-old, I still believe I can change the world and I'm not giving up hope.”

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[nj-ayuk1]

How NJ Ayuk Turned Being a Lawyer Into Being a Social Engineer

While William Shakespeare may have joked that lawyers have fingers that “dream on fees,” NJ Ayuk sees his profession differently. He adheres to the belief that attorneys can — and should — be agents of change. 

As the founder of the international firm Centurion Law Group, Ayuk has worked in the major leagues of the legal profession for years. And he attributes his rise to his education, his upbringing, and his work ethic — and an idea that struck him early on. 

Ayuk believed a lawyer could be either “a social parasite … [or a] social engineer.” And he had no intention of being a parasite.

NJ Ayuk: ‘I Am an African Capitalist’

Like many recent law school graduates, NJ Ayuk launched his career in a burst of idealistic hope. After witnessing the poverty of his native Cameroon and studying at the foot of Dr. Ronald Waters, one of the pioneers of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, Ayuk was primed for a life of righting societal wrongs and pushing countries in the right direction. 

Along the way, his views evolved. “I became a capitalist,” he said with a smile. “But I am an African capitalist, and I think an African capitalist is very different because we have to be able to combine a social sense and African sense and use our most given resources to empower our people.” He never abandoned his core beliefs, though. Instead of deciding to pursue money at the expense of his ideals, he found a way to do good while doing well. 

He’s the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, where he tirelessly advocates for bringing electricity to the more than 900 million Africans who currently lack access to clean cooking technologies. It also shines in his books. His latest, A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History with an Energy Mix, shares his prescription for how to move Africa toward renewable sources of energy while allowing the people to benefit from the continent’s rich reserves of fossil fuels. 

But it doesn’t end there. 

NJ Ayuk’s Long Shot

The clearest example of how NJ Ayuk has taken the profession that Charles Dickens called “an ass” and turned it into a fulcrum of societal change comes from how he operates the Centurion Law Group. 

After founding the firm, Ayuk and his partners found immediate success. They wanted to expand but realized there was a shortage of qualified young lawyers who could deliver new blood and ideas into their business. 

Instead of going to Europe and the U.S. to poach talent, they decided to take a different route to expanding the team. They wanted African lawyers with a different set of credentials, so they opted to invest their money into the next generation of lawyers. 

“We did the most difficult thing, which everybody thought was crazy,” NJ Ayuk recalled. “We had a big deal and won a great case and had earned a lot of money from it. We took that money and invested 80% of it in sending 25 young lawyers from Africa to the United States and Europe. We just felt if we are going to go for long term, we're going to have to pick these really smart and talented people and try it.”

It was the kind of long shot that was exceedingly rare. But it was a risk NJ Ayuk was willing to take. 

“I personally pushed for that because without education, I wouldn't be where I am, and I also thought, ‘These are really smart people. We need to be able to try this,’” he said. “Now, it was a gamble, but it paid off. We had a group of young talented people that came back, and they really drove the firm up, and we did different things, and we were all better off for it.”

Not only did Centurion’s investment in education help the firm, but it began to transform the landscape of the African legal system. Suddenly, there was a conduit from Africa through prestigious law schools across the globe, allowing students to dream bigger than ever before and setting the stage for some truly remarkable happenings. 

“We went from being a regular law firm to getting up to 180 lawyers and business advisers, and then decided to list into the stock exchange to get everybody be part of what we're building,” NJ Ayuk said. “I think that you have to take a bet, but you also have to have the strategy, and you have to really work hard at it. You have to just have that religious ethic of getting up and never giving up and really believing in people, and that's what worked for us.” 

#njayuk

[nj-ayuk1]

NJ Ayuk on the State of African Energy

NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, is looking toward the future of energy in Africa — the problems and the solutions.

As the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, NJ Ayuk spends a lot of time thinking about a central paradox that concerns his industry. 

He describes the situation simply: “I think the state of African energy, it’s mixed. It’s resilient, but it’s also very, very mixed. 

“Right now, 600 million Africans do not have access to electricity. Nine hundred million do not have access to clean cooking technologies, most of them women, and even those who have access to electricity, it is not reliable, it’s not consistent, and it’s not constant,” he added. “Yet, we’re producing so much oil, so much natural gas.” 

The paradox for Africa is how it can leverage its vast reserves of natural resources in a way that ultimately benefits regular Africans. In the past, Africans have been largely left out of enjoying the profits of their continent’s bounty, which has contributed to high levels of energy poverty. 

“You still have to look at where we stand today as a continent and say, ‘How are we going to really meet the needs of so many that don’t have?’” NJ Ayuk said. “I would say that is the state of the African energy sector. Basically that’s the state of African energy, because energy is life.

“We’re so glued into lights, into energy, into our cellphones. When you don’t have your cellphone, you feel like something is wrong. 

“That's where we stand when it comes to energy in Africa, and it is not good, it is tough.”

Europe Looks to Africa for Energy Needs

NJ Ayuk sees his role as helping bring more equitable energy to Africa. Through his work on the African Energy Chamber, he hopes to find more investors for the African energy sector and encourage African nations to build infrastructure that can withstand the brownouts that currently plague cities while also supplying power to rural residents who often live in the dark. 

Right now is a critical inflection point toward those goals. As Europe transitions away from Russian fuels, many nations are considering using African oil and natural gas as a replacement. 

But it’s not as simple as European companies buying from Africa instead of Russia. Much of Africa’s fossil fuels are in locations without mines or wells. Getting to the oil and exporting it to Europe will require significant investment to get the process started, NJ Ayuk explained. 

The question of who pays for that development and how it’s built are thorny issues that involve many stakeholders. But even with renewed interest from European markets, more significant problems — like climate change — loom large. 

NJ Ayuk believes all problems have solutions, even the complex realities that face the African energy sector. It’s possible, he said, to create incentives that spur new foreign investment that will not only benefit African people in the short term, but will allow countries across the continent to quickly shift to renewable energy sources as it becomes practical. 

Of course, it’s easier said than done. But NJ Ayuk envisions a fix that balances the short-term pursuit of profit by energy companies with the needs of current and future generations of Africans to live with reliable access to electricity.

“I am an African capitalist,” he said. “But I think an African capitalist is very different because we have to be able to combine a social sense with an African sense and use our most given resources to empower our people. I think it's something I see with a lot of people. You shouldn't be ashamed about making money; it is not bad.” 

He uses his own career as an example of a way for Africans to succeed while also effecting social change. 

As the founder of Centurion Law Group, NJ Ayuk has been instrumental in negotiating energy deals across sub-Saharan Africa. He’s used his position to hire and educate more African lawyers, often paying for them to follow in his footsteps and study law in America. In addition, Ayuk has spent untold hours working for pro-democracy and human rights causes. 

When he talks with students, he encourages them to stop thinking about choosing between social activism and making money. He challenges them to find ways to make both goals happen simultaneously. 

He believes that his example can inspire a new generation of African leaders who can not only achieve global success, but can use their profits to create meaningful change in their home countries — and he’s helping them do it. 

 “We had a big deal and won a great case, and invested 80% of that in sending 25 young lawyers from the continent into the U.S. and in Europe [for education] because we just felt if we are going to go for [the] long term, we're going to have to pick these really smart and talented people and try it,” Ayuk said.

“I personally pushed for that because without education, I wouldn't be where I am, and I also thought, ‘These are really smart people, we need to be able to try that.’ Now, it was a gamble, but it paid off. We had a group of young talented people that came back, and they really drove the firm up, and we did different things.”

#njayuk

[nj-ayuk1]

NJ Ayuk Reveals His Plan to Save Africa

Hundreds of millions of people in Africa are suffering from energy poverty, with many more depending on unreliable electric grids that regularly go down. But Amazon bestselling author and energy expert NJ Ayuk has a plan to change that. 

As climate concerns push governments to adopt stricter standards and earlier time lines to switch to renewable sources, the energy sector is preparing for a shakeup. But as environmentalists push to outlaw new sources of coal, oil, and natural gas, NJ Ayuk — a lawyer whose firm, Centurion Law Group, works extensively in the energy industry — worries that people in Africa will get left further behind. 

In his new book, A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History With an Energy Mix, he envisions a way for the world to move toward a greener future while allowing people from less developed nations the chance to catch up and enjoy the benefits of electricity. And Ayuk believes that one of the first steps toward putting Africa on the path toward a more sustainable future is shoring up funding for sustainable projects.

“On a bigger scale, we have to look at the issues that surround who has access to financing. I really drive this issue a lot because it is foundational to understanding what has already happened and what needs to change to ensure a better future. If you look at the numbers, you will see that less than 2% of global renewable investments have gone to Africa,” he said. “That's an issue that we need to advocate for more. We need to drive an increase in those kinds of investments if we want things to change in Africa. Right now, the world cannot tell the African continent to walk away from fossil fuel, then put less than 2% of its total investment into that continent.” 

Historically, however, Africa has not always received payout from the promises that have been made by wealthy nations. That has been happening for a long time, but the world was reminded of it again recently. In 2009, the wealthy countries that comprise the Conference of Parties promised to contribute $100 billion to developing nations by the year 2020 to help them reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This goal was formalized at the COP the following year, and at COP 21, it was extended to 2025.

However, that promise has not been kept. During the intervening years, things have not gotten better. Many less-wealthy nations have dealt with some of the worst effects of climate change. Natural disasters, like the floods and famine, have wreaked havoc on some of the world’s poorest countries. 

NJ Ayuk calls such promises “part of the balance sheet” between Africa and the rest of the world. His book details a plan to pull ordinary Africans out of energy poverty and push the continent toward more sustainable options. But he is not waiting to act.

As part of his duties as the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, he constantly works to increase foreign investment in Africa’s energy sector. He hopes the $100 billion promise is kept and that even more foreign investment comes to Africa. 

At the same time, NJ Ayuk believes that there is work for Africans to take on at home. While he believes that environmental issues affect the entire world and the globe must work together to combat a looming crisis, he does not pin all of his hopes for Africa on investment from wealthier nations. 

Part of the solution, he says, must come from within the borders of African countries themselves. 

“We as Africans have to look at the mirror,” he said. “Mirrors sometimes are not only there to reflect what we see. Sometimes, mirrors are there to correct what we see. Right now, we can look at the mirror and see the reflection of ourselves doing less than what is required. The mirror is showing us the things that we need to start doing for ourselves. We need to start looking at raising capital. We need to engage with organizations like Bank of America and others, so that we can find those creative, African private equity hedge funds and financial institutions to increase the pace of what is going on.” 

African nations, Ayuk said, should band together and take on the tough job of being their own advocate to the world. Together, the people of Africa can present a cogent, unified argument for how everyone can live a better life if wealthier nations help to tackle the problems that plague the poorest people. 

“I like watching movies sometimes. I have to tell you right now that Superman is not coming to do this for us. Batman is not coming to save us. Wakanda Forever is a great movie. But the Black Panther won’t save us,” NJ Ayuk stated. “So we have to really advocate for ourselves and drive this ourselves. If we want to raise money for our future, that will fall to us to do.”

#njayuk

[nj-ayuk1]

Bestselling Author NJ Ayuk Outlines His Plan To Help Africa

Two things can be true at once. Africa can move toward a future sustained by renewable energy sources and make use of its abundant fossil fuels, argues author NJ Ayuk in his latest book. 

A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History With an Energy Mix, which debuted at the top of Amazon’s bestseller list in March, outlines just how it can happen. 

As the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, NJ Ayuk has spent years working in and around Africa’s energy sector. 

In writing the book, he relied on his own experience as a lawyer whose firm, Centurion Law Group, has done extensive work in the industry, as well as on research and interviews with key business executives, community members, and energy experts. 

That work informed the plan NJ Ayuk outlines in his most recent work. His central thesis rests on the creation of a third option for Africa’s energy future. 

Too often, he says, the conversation around the future of energy devolves into a familiar and unhelpful dichotomy of environmentalists versus oil and gas companies. But NJ Ayuk doesn’t see these two sides as enemies locked in mortal combat. Instead, he advocates for a new kind of collaboration. 

He believes that environmentalists and energy companies can find common ground in an Africa-first approach that establishes a primary goal of helping people on the continent escape energy poverty.

“Right now, there are 600 million people in Africa who have no access to electricity,” NJ Ayuk said. “And there are 900 million people who lack access to clean cooking technologies. You can't discuss climate change without even looking at your energy poverty. They represent two sides of the same coin.” 

When the goal changes to helping people, it removes some of the animus from the conversation and allows both sides to present new solutions.

NJ Ayuk advocates for what he calls an “energy mix” approach. This would allow Africa to sell and use its own reserves of oil and natural gas to alleviate the poverty its people face, while at the same time moving toward a future in which renewable energy sources power the continent. 

Africa not only has more severe energy poverty than the developed world, but it also contributes far less to the problems that fossil fuels have caused. As part of his “just transition,” NJ Ayuk argues that Africa should not be held accountable for what other countries have done. Instead, he says, African countries should have less stringent rules and goals for the switch to sustainable sources of power. 

“Africa contributes 2% of the world’s carbon emissions even though we have about 17% of the world’s population,” he said. “Western and wealthy countries need to decarbonize and get to decarbonize fast. African nations need to industrialize first. They need to be allowed to use their gas, to use their oil, and sometimes coal to really power up.”

These resources serve multiple purposes, he says. Opening up new wells that can help supply Western countries as they transition away from Russian sources of power will create thousands of sorely needed jobs in Africa. At the same time, the new sources of energy can be used to help alleviate the lack of access to electricity that plagues many parts of the African continent.

Then, as European nations transition more quickly to sustainable energy sources, more of Africa’s natural resources can go toward powering the continent’s houses, hospitals, schools, and businesses that need access to power.

As the technology for sustainable energy matures and other countries complete their transitions to 100% renewable sources, Africa can catch up. By that time, Africa will have a much more expansive and reliable grid system, which will allow for an easier transition.

Not only does NJ Ayuk’s plan help more people more quickly than other proposals, but it follows current trends. That makes taking a people-first approach a practical way to help those who have traditionally been left behind by the energy sector while, at the same time, moving the world toward producing greener sources of electricity.

“Right now, South Africa is shipping more coal to Germany than it ever has. The U.K., for the first time in 30 years, is opening up coal-powered plants. Many European nations are opening federal lands for drilling,” NJ Ayuk said. “And then they turn around and tell Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, and all African countries that they need to be more sustainable. That is not a just energy transition. It’s not any kind of energy transition. A transition has to start somewhere. You cannot transition from the dark to the dark. We must deliver energy to the people of Africa and then worry about transitioning to environmentally friendly alternatives, just like we have everywhere else in the world.”

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NJ Ayuk Shares Plan To Provide Electricity to 600 Million More Africans

As developed nations struggle to create more incentives to move toward sustainable energy sources, the policies created can leave less developed nations in rough shape. But NJ Ayuk, an Amazon bestselling author, chairman of the African Energy Chamber, and founder of Centurion Law Group, has a plan to change that. 

More than 600 million Africans currently live without electricity. Many more live at the mercy of unreliable grids that regularly falter and leave them in the dark for hours or days at a time. 

However, these cases of severe energy poverty can be ameliorated, NJ Ayuk argues. But doing so will require a renewed investment in fossil fuels. 

Flexibility in Fossil Fuel Use Can Help Address Energy Poverty

In his most recent book, A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History With an Energy Mix, NJ Ayuk goes into detail about how to eradicate the lack of access to electricity that pervades much of the African continent. 

The plan centers on helping African nations catch up to the prosperity Western countries have reaped since industrialization by advocating for a different kind of investment in the future of energy. While NJ Ayuk supports environmentalist efforts to wean nations off fossil fuels and onto sustainable forms of energy, he argues these policies should not apply equally across all countries. 

Too often, he states, global solutions that champion green energy policies overlook the harm they cause to the world’s less-developed countries. This is especially acute in Africa, where energy poverty means 900 million people lack access to clean cooking technologies while vast reserves of oil and natural gas sit unused. 

“Africa creates only 3% of carbon emissions despite being home to nearly 17% of the world’s population,” he said. “Africa must be allowed in industrialize.”

As a native of Cameroon who attended college and law school in the United States, NJ Ayuk saw early in life what kind of quality-of-life differences access to electricity makes. 

But beyond the obvious aid that access to energy would provide for millions of Africans, the act of developing a new energy sector would also improve the economies of many states, he said. 

“I come from fossil fuels, and I'm not ashamed of fossil fuels. I'm really proud of fossil fuels because I think they have driven human civilization. They have really created something that has brought on amazing achievements, and we have to embrace what they can do for Africa. At the same time, we can look at the future and start finding new solutions to replace them,” he said. “But fossil fuels present an amazing opportunity for young people in Africa to find jobs and be on the forefront of new energy solutions as well. That goes especially for African women, who have been overlooked for so long. We have the ability to correct those injustices.” 

An Eventual Transition to Sustainable Energy

The second part of NJ Ayuk’s proposal is for Africa to move quickly from fossil fuels into sustainable forms of energy. This is what the title of A Just Transition is about. He points out that energy transitions can only happen once a source of energy exists. “You can’t transition from the dark to the dark,” he said. 

He believes African countries can build an energy sector from the ground up that will make use of fossil fuels, but also quickly transition once sustainable energy sources mature. 

Although Africa is behind much of the developed world, it won’t have to spend nearly as long on the transition from fossil fuels to green technologies, NJ Ayuk says. By building a malleable infrastructure, Africans can bolster both the short- and long-term future at once. 

He calls this concept “leapfrogging.” As an example of how Africans have already leapfrogged modern technology advances, NJ Ayuk provided an example of the transition from landlines to cellphones. In more developed nations, the transition took a long time from the development of car phones to the modern portable devices. In Africa, it happened much quicker.

“I’ve seen what Africans can do. I grew up in a house where we had no cellphones. Nobody had a cellphone. Then we leapfrogged from that into cellphones,” he said. “So I know it is possible for Africans to be able to do that. Now the big questions are: What can you do to find innovative, creative ways to create jobs to capture this moment but also look at the obstacles and the bottlenecks that are in the way? How do we move away from underestimating Africa?”

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NJ Ayuk Shares His Thoughts on How a New Energy Sector Can Help African Women

The world is currently grappling with climate change and how to implement policies that promote more sustainable forms of energy. But bestselling author and energy expert NJ Ayuk argues one topic that isn’t discussed enough is how the next stage of energy development can benefit women. 

As author of several books on energy, including his latest, A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History with an Energy Mix, NJ Ayuk understands the difficulties the energy sector faces when it comes to renewable sources of power. And, as chairman of the African Energy Chamber, he offers unique insight into the role Africa can play in expanding access to electricity and providing women with a better quality of life. 

“In Africa, there is that silent majority that nobody talks about. Right now, there are 600 million people without access to electricity. There are 900 million without access to clean cooking technologies. Most of them are women,” he said. “Nobody’s talking about their issues, and nobody is talking about their causes.”

Africa Caught in the Middle on Energy Issues

Right now, most of the world’s energy markets are facing a shakeup. Europe is transitioning away from purchasing Russian fossil fuels because of the war in Ukraine. On the other side of the globe, China is buying more fossil fuels from Russia than it ever has before. And caught in the middle is the continent of Africa, which is home to vast reserves of oil and natural gas — and massive numbers of people living in energy poverty. 

While some countries and businesses weigh the benefits of investing money in Africa to extract its fossil fuels, others are voicing environmental concerns. They argue that instead of pouring more money into polluting forms of energy, more effort should go into sustainable power, such as solar, electric, and wind. 

NJ Ayuk thinks there is a middle way. As he points out, hundreds of millions of Africans live without any access to electricity. The continent produces only 3% of the world’s carbon emissions, despite being home to nearly 17% of the planet’s population. 

He believes Africa should sell its fossil fuels, use the funds to expand access to electricity and build jobs, all while preparing the continent for a transition to more eco-friendly sources in the near future.

By leveraging Africa’s natural resources alongside smart policies, the continent will be able to lift the standard of living for millions of people — and solve some of its most pressing social problems, he said. 

“Let's be honest — the energy industry has done a horrible job when it comes to anything to do with women,” NJ Ayuk said. “It’s not even something we need to be proud of. We need to be ashamed. Women are still the last to be hired and the first fired in our industry. Women’s issues have just been very overlooked, and we really hope that when we are talking about a transition, this does not repeat itself, no matter if it’s with the grain economy or it’s the fossil fuel industry or green energy. We need to change that no matter where we go. We need to ensure that women have equal opportunities to benefit from foreign investments in the energy sector and have equal opportunities to benefit from the jobs creating by bringing industry to the continent.” 

He speaks from experience. As the son of a single mother who worked to provide for her children, NJ Ayuk has long noticed the gender gaps both in education and the professional world. And he’s worked hard to change them. 

“I was always told that, as a lawyer, you can be one of two things. You can be a social parasite or a social engineer,” he said. “That’s a choice. And I felt if you're going to really be a social engineer, you’re going to have to really understand energy, understand energy law. And be on the table and be in the room to really change things and improve things.”

Helping African Women Who Want To Become Lawyers

For his part, NJ Ayuk has already started helping the next generation of women through the firm he founded, Centurion Law Group. The practice helps place bright young African students into American law schools to give them access to a world-class education. 

“When you look at a lot of young Africans, especially the women, nobody gives them a shot. Nobody. Everybody looks down on them,” he said. But NJ Ayuk says that with the help of American law firms that work with Centurion, the firm has trained young Africans to become “amazing lawyers.”

“We have so many people who have come through our programs that today they are serving as prosecutors or serving as judges. Heck, some of them even serve as opposing counsel to us right now. But that's a beautiful thing. So we’ve had this slew and a great group of African female lawyers that have gone through Centurion and they are general counsels in corporations and taking on the world.” 

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NJ Ayuk Discusses How an Energy Transition Can Benefit Africa

Author NJ Ayuk sees an opportunity for developing right now to help end energy poverty in Africa. 

Currently, more than 600 million people on the African continent live without access to electricity. Many more than that experience regular blackouts and brownouts that can leave them in the dark for hours or days at a time. 

But things can change, says NJ Ayuk, the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, an Amazon bestselling author, and the founder of international firm Centurion Law Group. 

“It’s really about thinking how we use what we have to get what we want,” he said. “And because I have a finance background, I like to think about the problem of energy poverty from the perspective of financial resources.”

In his latest work, Ayuk advances a plan that will industrialize Africa by leveraging its natural resources. The book, A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History With an Energy Mix, explains how Africa deserves a chance to use fossil fuels to benefit its residents, who create less than 3% of the world’s carbon emissions, before switching to more sustainable resources.

But for that to happen, many things have to change. He argues that more-developed countries need to keep the promises they’ve made to Africa over the years and at the same time, invest more capital in helping Africans pull themselves out of energy poverty. 

“Right now, more than 900 million Africans live without access to clean cooking technologies,” NJ Ayuk explained. “Most of them are women. We have to change that. We have got to do more for these people.”

Despite the vast natural resources in Africa, including precious gems and reserves of oil and natural gas, the continent remains poor. Part of the reason for this, he said, is that Africa has gotten more than its share of bad deals. 

As an example, NJ Ayuk pointed to the $100 billion broken promise. At COP15, the United Nations Biodiversity Conference, in 2009, a collection of developed countries committed to deliver $100 billion in investments to lesser-developed countries by the year 2020. So far, that money has proved elusive. 

According to a self-analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the developed countries’ combined investment has been less than $100 billion per year by quite a bit. Instead, climate finance was concentrated on mitigation activities in a few high-emitting (and more-developed) nations. At the same time, governments failed to encourage enough private investment in lesser-developed countries than predicted. 

Even worse, most of the private investment dollars didn’t go to where they were most needed. Instead, these investments were concentrated in middle-income countries that had created a number of incentives to attract foreign money. 

“Equity, in so far as energy transition is concerned, is No. 1,” NJ Ayuk said. “The global North needs to stick to its promises around supporting the African continent's climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.” 

At the same time, he added, the nations of Africa need to prove they can become more effective managers of foreign capital.

“Any real solution cannot only focus on more-developed countries. It must also take into account African governments properly stewarding the continent’s financial resources and harnessing domestic and local capital markets to drive that energy transition,” Ayuk explained. “We need to cut out corruption. We need to provide more resources to help people in our societies who have been undervalued, especially African women. As much as I love the movies, there is no Black Panther. There is no Wakanda. No one is coming to save us, so we have to do it ourselves. That means making meaningful changes to how we structure deals, incentivize investors, and conduct the business of governing.”

Foreign investments and better policies can jump-start Africa’s energy program, he said. That means selling resources and funneling the profits to build reliable electric grids that reach into energy deserts and bring reliable sources of power to communities all throughout the continent. 

This kind of investment will create much-needed jobs, giving young people a better chance at improving their station, and allowing rural Africans to experience a higher quality of life. With reliable energy, hospitals can function better, small businesses can become more efficient, and schools can provide a fundamentally better education to the next generation. 

And, importantly, the work toward a more sustainable future can begin in earnest. 

“The third thing about transition is that it's also about the sustainable extraction of our mineral resources and then using the windfall from that extraction to invest in more sustainable forms of energy,” NJ Ayuk stated. “You can’t transition from the dark to the dark. We have to build something first before we can transition. The west has already gone through industrialization. Africa needs to be able to go through its own period of industrialization before we can transition away from fossil fuels.” 

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NJ Ayuk Discusses 21st-Century Solutions To Address Climate Change in Africa and Across the Globe

As the call to effectively respond to climate change grows louder, governments, think tanks, and companies across the globe are struggling to discover new ways to arrest, reverse, or ameliorate destructive patterns. But new solutions can only come from deliberate and unified action, according to author and energy expert NJ Ayuk.

Ayuk, who serves as executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber and speaks and writes extensively about the future of Africa’s fossil fuels and transition toward more sustainable energy sources, believes that the best way to create an effective plan against the worst consequences of climate change is to empower businesses across the globe. 

“I think the first thing we have to look at is that we believe in a market-driven approach,” he said. “I’m a capitalist. I enjoy making money, and I believe that capitalism is the best way to respond to the issue of climate change. I like making money, and I think we need to engage in a more free-market discussion of how we approach problems like climate change.”

Capitalism can help, NJ Ayuk said, but it may take more than a simple laissez-faire approach. Because the need for effective road maps is so great, governments must play a role in spurring the markets to action. 

“If a free and structured market has been important in creating wealth and solving problems, it can be leveraged to address our responses to climate change. That’s why we have to drive the conversation and government regulation toward a place where the market can really start addressing these issues,” NJ Ayuk said. “Now, those solutions will probably come from the private sector, but the public sphere has a very important role in guiding the conversation and leading businesses.

“One of the key things we look at, and that we’ve already accomplished with the African Energy Chamber, is to ask ourselves, ‘How do we encourage the right sort of policymaking? How do we encourage the right rules?’ We want to encourage market-driven solutions, but there is no simple boilerplate language that will create the perfect solution. It’s complicated. We want governments to help, but at the same time, we don’t necessarily want governments picking winners and losers.” 

The right policy mix includes incentives for entrepreneurs to innovate new technology and discover new ways of responding to climate change, NJ Ayuk stated. 

But creating “the right policies” is difficult, he added. Every country has a different sort of business culture, which forges a need for subtle nuances in incentives in every nation. At the same time, climate change is a worldwide concern that should be approached from every angle, which means that government rules and regulations should not only encourage local businesses to tackle the problem, but also make foreign investment attractive.

“On a bigger scale, you can look at the issues related to access to finance. This is something that I think about and talk about a lot,” NJ Ayuk said. “Less than 2% of global renewable investment has gone to Africa. That’s an issue we need to advocate [for] much more loudly. You can’t tell the entire continent of Africa to simply walk away from fossil fuels and then give them only 2% of your investments. That is not a recipe for addressing climate change or bettering the lives of Africans. You simply cannot create solutions that way.” 

Ideally, any climate change response will not only help heal the damage done to the environment but will also allow people from poorer countries who have not been the beneficiaries of technologies that have spurred the current crisis to improve their stations, he said. 

A full explanation of the policies advocated by NJ Ayuk is explained in his recent book, A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History With an Energy Mix. It details how oil and gas companies can help deliver economic prosperity to Africans using the continent’s fossil fuels while simultaneously taking steps toward a more sustainable future. 

Already, some helpful methods of addressing climate change through capitalism have emerged. Ayuk pointed to international cap-and-trade policies as well as climate mitigations funds, which have both brought successful, if limited, solutions to the table. 

“We have seen the effectiveness of climate mitigation funds and other policies that have helped businesses get a better grasp of the toll they take on the environment while increasing investment in more diverse areas across the globe,” he stated. “I think more adaptation of them should come. But they have not been completely accountable. Wealthy countries promised to invest $100 billion in less-developed nations, but it has not come. It has not come for 13 years. That's a balance sheet. And it needs to change.”

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Amazon Bestselling Author NJ Ayuk Outlines an Energy Plan for Africa

As the world attempts to respond to the recent energy shakeup in a way that accounts for the Russia-Ukraine war, post-pandemic supply chain issues, and the near-emergence of sustainable solutions, fossil fuels in Africa have become a hot topic of debate. Author NJ Ayuk, executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber, believes there’s a way forward that will not only help the world meet its current energy needs, but can also benefit the millions of Africans currently living without electricity.

Ayuk’s book, A Just Transition: Making Energy Poverty History With an Energy Mix, is a finely tuned argument for helping the African people by leveraging the continent’s vast reserves of oil and natural gas. 

Author NJ Ayuk lays an argument that favors the 600 million Africans who currently live without access to electricity and the 900 million people on the continent who lack access to clean cooking technologies. Central to his argument is the fact that Africa produces less than 3% of the world’s carbon emissions yet is home to about 17% of the global population.

“We need an energy transition, but it has to be a just energy transition,” he stated. “I think our challenge right now is to figure out a way to be fighting climate change and energy poverty at the same time. I think there is a very Western misconception about the needs of everyday people in Africa, where the dialogue is just based on a desire to save the planet. Yes, we want to save the planet. We all should want that. But climate change and energy poverty are two sides of the same coin.

“We have to do both. We have to make energy poverty history. You can’t talk about denying Africa a way to help 900 million people, most of them women, who are living their lives without having their very basic needs met, because of the emissions that have benefited other countries.”

In addition to writing books and heading the AEC, NJ Ayuk is the founder of the international firm Centurion Law Group, which does much of its legal work in and around the energy sector in Africa.

His experience in the industry has led NJ Ayuk to some policy prescriptions that can help Africa — and the world — fare better in the next century. He believes that by creating an energy mix that allows some countries to continue using fossil fuels while others transition to more sustainable offerings is the right way to move everyone forward. 

“When you really look at where we are right now and you look at where we are going, people are saying, ‘Let’s abandon natural gas and just concentrate on a transition to renewables.’ But what does that look like for people in Africa? What are you going to transition from — from the dark to the dark?” he asked. “You need to have something to start with, then you can transition. Africa’s energy emissions are not even up to 3% of the world’s carbon. So [places] like Europe or the United States that are somewhere in the 20s or the 30s, they need to decarbonize and they need to decarbonize fast. Africa needs to be given a chance to industrialize.”

The book comes at a crucial moment in international relations. As Europe continues to seek new sources of energy to replace the fossil fuels that many countries were purchasing from Russia, African reserves have become a key area of interest. This represents a chance to right some of the former wrongs that have been visited on Africa by Western countries while also correcting social injustices that continue to exist.

Many of the social injustices revolved around a community that has long been overlooked, both on a global stage and specifically in Africa. 

“We can’t talk about a just energy transition without seeing African women being a big part of that,” NJ Ayuk said. “Let’s be honest: The energy industry has done a horrible job when it comes to anything to do with women. It’s not even something we need to be proud of — we need to be ashamed. Women are still the last hired and the first fired in our industry. Women's issues have just been very overlooked, and we really hope that when we are talking about a transition, this does not repeat itself.

“Whether it’s with the grain economy or whatever you see, if it's a replacement of what you’ve seen in the fossil fuel industry with the grain industry, then it’s going to be really despicable. It even happens in the clean energy sector. Women today are still receiving less than 2% of the investments in that sector. We have to change that.”

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