“If you’re not telling your story, someone else is and they rarely get it right.”In recent months, energy headlines about Africa have been shaped by narratives that often miss the full picture.
From Bloomberg’s coverage of Nigeria’s subsidy removal fallout, to The Economist’s portrayal of Angola’s energy “fragility”, the messaging about Africa’s oil and gas sector is frequently filtered through obscured lenses. The result? A skewed perception of risk, responsibility, and potential.In 2025, Africa must stop being just an oil source and start being a strategic voice.
Why this Narrative Matters
Oil and gas are not just commodities; they are geopolitical symbols and public trust assets. Perception affects:
Investor confidence (see the hesitance around new African LNG projects vs. Qatar’s acceleration) Regulatory pressure (as seen in Uganda’s EACOP project delays, driven partly by global environmental activism) Public legitimacy (especially in communities affected by extraction but excluded from consultation).
If the energy sector does not control its own narrative, it loses control of its future.
What Happens When Others Tell the Story.
Example 1: Nigeria’s 2023–24 Fuel Subsidy Reform.
Western outlets framed the subsidy removal largely as a political gamble, with headlines emphasizing hardship and instability. Missing? The broader reform agenda and the nuanced economic context. This doesn’t negate that the subsidy brought economic hardship, but the promised reform agenda context was missed out of narrative.
The lesson: Local leaders must anticipate the media gap and fill it with structured, credible, and human-centered storytelling.
Example 2: IOC’s Exit from Onshore Nigeria.While some reports rightly highlighted environmental and community concerns, few balanced that with IOC’s stated reinvestment into deep offshore and renewable energy.
The lesson: If African energy players do not frame divestment or transitions proactively, they will always appear reactive and seen as not following due processes in legitimate transactions.
Example 3: EACOP (East African Crude Oil Pipeline).Global activist campaigns branded the project as a climate disaster, sparking divestment from banks and insurers. Yet, voices from Uganda and Tanzania were drowned out despite major economic and employment stakes.
The lesson: Communication is not just media relations. It’s stakeholder defense and international diplomacy.
What Energy Leaders Must Do Now.
To reclaim the narrative, African energy firms and ministries must evolve their communication strategies from transactional to transformational by institutionalizing storytelling.
Appoint chief communication officers who sit in board-level meetings and accept their guidance on aligning strategy to operational delivery.
Create country-level energy storybooks explaining strategy, reforms, and values in simple language.
Also, Build Digital Muscle.
Stop outsourcing comms entirely to PR agencies with no sector expertise.Train internal teams to create insight-driven Digital and Traditional content.
Then Speak Before You are Spoken About. Pre-empt crises with transparency.
Use ESG and investor’s storytelling not just for compliance but for influence. Use Local Voices, Global Platforms.
Elevate local experts, journalists, and community reps to global media panels. Shaping our narratives is a collective responsibility of organisation and the media.
Shape the narrative from within, engrain ambassadorship through internal communications and public advocacy through external communication and authentic real-time brand stories.
Those Doing It Right: Aradel, formerly known as Niger Delta Petroleum Resources, Aradel has emerged as a bold voice in Nigeria’s indigenous upstream space. Its 2023 rebrand was more than cosmetic, it was a deliberate narrative shift.
Here are what Aradel has done well: Linked its heritage to future-facing strategy, showing continuity with innovation.
Humanized its brand by spotlighting local talent, technical excellence, and community impact.
Owned its identity as an independent Nigerian producer, pushing back subtly against the myth that only IOCs can operate responsibly. Aradel’s media, digital presence, and executive visibility show what is possible when African indigenous organisation tell their own story with clarity, purpose, and pride.Their success signals a wider truth: indigenous players are not just operators, they are narrators of Africa’s energy future.
NNPC Ltd, since its transition to a limited liability company in 2022, NNPC Ltd. has adopted a sharper comms style including regular media engagements and increased content on transparency.
While still far from perfect, it’s a marked shift from the opacity of the past.
The message: strategic visibility equals relevance.
Final Word. Africa has the reserves, the market, and the innovation. What it lacks and must now claim is narrative power. Because perception drives policy and silence is forfeiture. To win this long game, Africa energy communication must own and shape their narrative, building internal ambassadorship within their organisation and through strategic external relations, build public trust and advocacy to attract the right instittuitonal resources and investments needed for this current growth phase.
By Tunbosun Afolayan Chief Executive Officer at PRO ALLY | Your Energy Communication Partner, with a mission to tell Energy Impact stories. With over 20years of experience in the oil and gas industry working across EMEA and IABC’s certified first west African Strategic Communication Management Professional, Tunbosun brings a simplified technical perspective and far reaching communication lens to the Africa energy storytelling.
