The Senior Vice President Africa/Middle East, Total Marketing & Services, Mr. Momar Nguer has called upon Governments on the African continent to create an enabling environment for more investments on the continent as a way of tapping into the enormous potential of the youth. The Vice President was speaking at a Public lecture in Makerere University on 13th Nov. 2013, on the topic, ‘Why I believe in Africa.’

In a meeting with the Acting Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs), Prof. J.Y.T. Mugisha prior to the Public Lecture, Mr. Nguer accompanied by Mr. Imrane Barry, Managing Director, Total Uganda Limited and other Total officials expressed his gratitude at being given the opportunity to share with students his vast experience. Welcoming Mr. Nguer to Makerere, Prof. Mugisha thanked Total for choosing the University to host the lecture, noting that it was a good exposure opportunity for our students. Commenting on the courses already offered by the College of Natural Sciences (CoNAS), Prof. Mugisha noted

“Our Department of Geology and Petroleum Studies offers courses at both Undergraduate and Graduate Levels in partnership with the University of Bergen,” he said. “We signed a three year Memorandum of Understanding with Total E&P Uganda in May 2012 to promote education and development through which our students have already secured study opportunities,” added Prof. Mugisha.

In his address to Staff, Graduate and Undergraduate students who attended the Public Lecture, Mr. Momar Nguer outlined Africa’s continued economic growth, A burgeoning Middle Class and An improved economic environment resulting from Good Governance as three main reasons why he believes in Africa. According to Nguer, Africa is the continent that has it all. “This continent has a healthy growth rate, which economists say is characterized by a decrease in the dependency ratio. Investment in Africa is key as the Government cannot accommodate all the youngsters coming from Universities, who are over 40,000 annually in most countries,” observed Mr. Nguer.

“Government has to create an enabling environment for companies to operate. If you take the example of mobile payments, what we are doing in Africa is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Africa is taking the lead and this is a good demonstration of the potential of business in Africa if the environment continues to allow. We cannot be the ones lagging behind all the time. We should not allow this,” he asserted, further adding “We need to set the pace in some domains. The rest of the world has not seen us yet.”

Nguer revealed that Total Uganda will during the course of 2014 roll out a Young Entrepreneur Initiative to facilitate the creation of Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) to help Graduates create their own businesses, as is done in South East Asia and the United States. “We need to give hope to our people. It is not about leaving it to Governments alone. As Total Uganda, we intend to launch an initiative on young entrepreneurship,” he explained. He called upon Government to prioritize agriculture as a backbone for Africa.  “Each of us should think of things that benefit the entire continent. Why subsidize fuel and not fertilizers?” he wondered.

Commenting about the potential of oil in Uganda, Vice President Nguer asserted that Uganda currently enjoys a coveted position and needs to take full advantage of it. “Uganda is lucky to be the first country in the region to be producing oil. She can take the lead and be a reference point as the country with experts on oil for the region. Right now Uganda may not have the expertise but will certainly do so in the next 5 – 10 years as more citizens get grounded in the industry. That is what Uganda should be striving for,” he said.

Mr. Nguer also reiterated Total’s commitment to exploitation of alternative sources of energy. “Total has acquired SunPower on of the biggest Solar Companies and won the contract to build a 70MW solar plant in Chile. We also launched the Awango Solar Lamp which provides up to 6 hours of lighting for rural areas and although our target was 300,000 units by 2015, we have already surpassed it and our new target is 1million lamps.”

He reinforced Totals’ commitment to partnering with Makerere University through their graduate management training programme that has seen up to forty five fresh graduates train at Total Uganda. In his parting remarks, he counseled the congregation to “Think beyond yourself. Think about your community, country and continent. In that way you will build a lasting legacy,” he concluded.

Article by Marion Alina, Public Relations Office