Benjamin Boakye is an Energy Governance Professional and the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy.

Prior to becoming the Executive Director, he served as the Deputy Executive Director, Programmes Director and Operations Director, managing the Research Unit and the Programmes Unit.

He has made contributions to the extractive sector governance in Ghana and Africa with much focus on corporate governance, institutional development, fiscal governance, contract governance and evolution of legal framework for effective management of extractive resources. He has also consulted for the World Bank Group, UNDP, and many research institutions in the resource sector.

Benjamin has delivered presentations at various international conferences on the extractive sector, particularly on revenue generation and expenditure. He works with host communities, analyzing the communities’ issues relative to the development of extractives’ projects and revenue redistribution. He also has extensive experience on power sector reforms.

Benjamin holds an MSc in Energy Studies from the University of Dundee, UK and a BA Hon. in Sociology with Information Studies, from the University of Ghana.

Mr. Prosper Ahmed Amuquandoh is an Energy, Infrastructure Development and International Trade professional, with over 10 years of combined working experience that spans Academia, International Development and Public & Private Sectors. He has consulted for several organizations, including the United Nations Environment Program and the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves and Fuels. He has previously worked at the Global Institute of Sustainability, at the Arizona State University (Tempe, USA).

Mr. Amuquandoh currently serves on the National Risk Management Team for the implementation of Ghana’s Paperless Port System to facilitate international trade; and the Technical Select Committee of the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s Business Awards. He is also the Energy Advisor to the Integrated Water & Agriculture Development Ghana Ltd. Furthermore, Mr. Amuquandoh works with the Ghana Energy Commission, where he helps with the development, as well as leads the enforcement, of Regulations, Standards and Codes of Practice in Ghana’s renewable energy industry.

He has received a number of awards and recognition for his professional service and achievement. Notable among these are: the African Initiative for Governance Award, which he received in 2018; and the Rising Star of the Year in Ghana’s energy sector, which he received at the 2018 Ghana Energy Awards. In 2017, he was adjourned the winner of the Energy category at Ghana’s maiden 40 Under Forty Awards. In 2016, he was a finalist for the Future Energy Leader Award in West Africa, at the West African Power Industry Awards, held in Nigeria. In the same year, Mr. Amuquandoh received the Mandela Washington Fellowship Award by President Barack Obama and the US State Department.

His training is in Public Policy, at the University of Oxford; Theoretical Physics at the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy); Zero–Net Energy Systems & Policy, at the University of California (Davis, USA); Hydropower & Sustainable Development, at the International Center on Small Hydro Power (China); and in Physics & Computer Science (with First Class Honours), at the University of Ghana.

Dr. Juliette Twumasi-Anokye is an extractive governance, legal and regulatory expert in Ghana and Africa. She has worked in both public service and private legal practice rendering consultancy and advisory services to government, companies and civil society locally and internationally for over two decades. She is a lawyer and an independent consultant specialising in energy, oil and gas, local content and business development. She is the Co-Founder and Principal Consultant at Anojul Afriyie & Co. a regulatory, law, and policy consultancy firm specialising in energy and natural resources.

Dr. Arron Tchouka Singhe is a low carbon pathways expert, and key advisor to African countries on policies and strategies to maximize the benefits of exploitation of their petroleum resources in the context of energy transition. He currently serves at Chief Oil Sector Officer at the African Development Bank. Previously, he held technical, managerial, and business development positions in energy research institutions, petroleum industry and strategic management consulting. He holds a PhD in subsurface energy systems and MBA in Oil & Gas Management.

Dr. Andrews Amankwah, an Investment Banker with over 20 years managerial experience is a Director at the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) and currently the Treasurer, and also in charge of Resource Mobilisation in the Bank.

Prior to EBID, he worked for three years at Societe Generale Ghana as the Head of Structured Finance; ten years on Wall Street as a Vice President and Client Service Manager in the Structured Finance – CDO at the Bank of New York; and four years at The Vanguard Group as a Financial Analyst/Repo Trader.

He has a Doctorate degree in Business Administration from the SBS Swiss Business School, Zurich – Switzerland, three Master’s Degrees and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree.

Victoria Ibezim-Ohaeri is the founder and director of research and policy at Spaces for Change [S4C], a non-profit organization based in Nigeria that conducts cutting-edge research and advocacy focusing on strategic sectors such as urban governance, gender inclusion, energy policy and defending the civic space. She is an SXSW 2013 honoree, 2016 Desmond Tutu Fellow and 2015 Harvard University alumni.  In her 15 years of legal career and involvement in social and economic rights research and advocacy, she has traversed four continents: Africa, Europe, North America and South America, leading research investigations, documenting and exposing human rights violations, formulating and analyzing social and economic policy at national, regional and international levels.

Victoria has spent the past eight years at S4C conducting rigorous research studies and policy analysis, empowering under-served communities, advising private and public institutions, speaking at high-level national and international convenings and facilitating multi-stakeholder policy dialogues on critical social and economic justice issues. As the organization’s director of research and policy, she has led and participated in major international studies commissioned by UN-HABITAT, COHRE, MSI Integrity, Ford Foundation, International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Energia, Women Learning Partnership, University College London’s (UCL’s) Bartlett Department of Planning Unit, Conectas, among others. She writes for numerous national dailies and also sits on the board of a number of national and international non-governmental organizations, such as Publish What You Pay International, Journalists Initiative for Sustainable Environment, Good Women Association, Legal Resource Center etc.

Kwaku Boateng is an Energy Economist with over 20 years senior management & leadership experience in the oil and gas industry and proven record of Oil and Gas Project Management, Regulation and Energy Policy formulation. He has an excellent knowledge of the commercial, policy and regulatory issues in the sector.

Currently, he is a Director for Local Content at the Petroleum Commission, Ghana (a Petroleum Upstream Regulator). He was a member of the Project Implementation Committee that set up Ghana National Gas Company and prepared the Project Execution Strategy for Natural Gas Project. He later worked with that company as a Senior Manager for Gas Commercialization and Business Development.

Earlier on, he worked at BOST as the Head Natural Gas Division, responsible for the company’s natural gas business development. Before joining BOST, Mr. Boateng worked with the Ministry of Energy as Head Petroleum Upstream and later acted as the Director Petroleum responsible for both upstream and downstream operations. During this period, he led the Ministry’s team in negotiating Petroleum Agreements and develop Energy Policy, Local Content Policy, Local Content Regulations and other Regulations.

As a member of the Core team, Mr, Boateng took part in the negotiation of West African Gas Pipeline Project and prepared several project agreements including the WAGP Treaty, IPA and WAGP Regulations. He took part in the preparation of the draft Petroleum Exploration and Production Bill and preparing petroleum upstream regulations.

He also took part in the preparation of important policy and legislative documents including: National Energy Policy, Gas Pricing Policy, Petroleum Revenue Management Regulations and Oil & Gas EITI.

Mr. Boateng has acquired many years of international consulting and business experience having worked with international consulting firms in many countries. He also has several years of teaching and research experience in some academic institutions such as South West Business School, Rasio, Finland, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration, Helsinki, Finland and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology.

Victoria is a lawyer and an Energy and Mining expert, with extensive experience working on various projects in the different parts of the Globe. She is a holder of a PhD in International Energy Law and Policy (Dundee). Victoria is the Founder and Executive Director of the African Energy and Minerals Management Initiative. She is the CEO and lead consultant at Nalule Energy & Minerals Consultants (NEM- www.nemenergyco.com).

She is an Energy Arbitrator at the Energy Disputes Arbitration Center (EDAC), Turkey. She is also a Senior Research Fellow in Mining Law & Governance at the Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainability Development (OGEES). She is a committee member at the International Law Association (ILA): and at Access for Women in Energy-an international NGO.

Victoria is an author and has widely published on topics relating to oil, gas, renewable energy, climate change, mining and International Arbitration. Her latest five books covering energy, mining, land access and Extractives, energy arbitration, and negotiation in Extractives.

Victoria offers extensive experience in the Energy and Mining sectors having worked with various institutions; regional and international organizations including assignments for The Queen Mary University of London (EU Energy Project); The International Energy Charter Secretariat in Belgium; The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment in New York; the East African Community Secretariat in Tanzania; the University of Dundee; the Southern African Development Community Secretariat in Botswana; International Arbitration Case Law in New York; Institute of Petroleum Studies; Uganda Christian University; Journal of Mines, Metals and Fuels (Editorial Board Member); She has also worked with both the private and public legal sectors of Uganda including Kakuru & Co. Advocates and the Anti-Corruption Court.

She has presented as a speaker and panellist in several forums and conferences. She has also advised African governments on oil, gas and mining projects including appearing as an expert witness before the Commission of Inquiry into Land matters in Uganda; presenting comments on the South African Petroleum Bill before the country’s Policy Makers; leading a team of energy experts in reviewing Energy/Mining laws and policies for countries such as Namibia, Ethiopia, Uganda etc.

Victoria has an active YouTube Channel and Podcast both focused on energy and mining discussions. She is one of the few people who got her PhD in less than 3 years below the age of 30 years. For more, visit www.victorianalule.com.

Oliver Maponga is an Economic Affairs Officer at the United Nations Economic Commission (UNECA) for Africa is currently based at the regional office in Lusaka, Zambia.  Since joining UNECA in 2004, Oliver’s work has included providing technical support on socio economic development, energy, mining and land policy analysis and development, industrialization and regional integration to member States and regional economic communities in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

Oliver has supported work on developing regional frameworks for the minerals sector including; the SADC Mining Policy Harmonization Framework, the SADC Regional Mining Vision, the Africa Mining Vision and its Action Plan and the Economic Community of West African States Minerals Development Policy. Recently his support to COMESA and SADC has focused on domestication of the Mining Vision in member States, industrialization and industrial policy development and profiling regional mineral value chains, mineral beneficiation and mining skills development. Between 2012 and 2018 Oliver coordinated and lectured in the annual course on Mining Policy and Contracts Negotiation for senior government officials organized through UNECA’s African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP).

Prior to joining the Commission, Oliver held the post Minerals Economist, Lecturer and Chairman of the Institute of Mining Research at the University of Zimbabwe where his responsibilities included supporting regional and national minerals sector development through fundamental and applied research and introducing and unpackaging new technologies for the sector, teaching and supervising the provision of analytical services for mineral determinations for investment in exploration and mining development and for export purposes. The outcomes of some of his research work in small scale mining, minerals and development, mining policy development, regional integration and mining and socio-economic and environmental impacts has been published in journals such as Natural Resources Forum, Minerals and Energy, Cleaner Production and Resources Policy. He also held the post of Visiting Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the Western Australian School of Mines in Karlgoorlie (2000 and 2001).

Oliver holds a PhD in Mineral Economics from the Western Australian School of Mines and is also a graduate of McGill University, Canada and the University of Zimbabwe.

Dr Theophilus Acheampong is an economist and political risk analyst with over ten years’ experience working with governments, private investors and international organizations on natural resource governance and public financial management issues. He has worked as an independent consultant on over 40 projects in the global energy industry, particularly in upstream oil and gas, and in providing economic analysis and market research focused on frontier emerging markets. He is currently co-editing a Palgrave MacMillan book titled “Petroleum Resource Management in Africa: Lessons from Ghana”, which examines the challenges and opportunities from ten years of oil and gas production in Ghana.

Dr. Petina Gappah is the Principal Legal Advisor in the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretriat. A Zimbabwean national who was born in Zambia, she has law degrees from the Universities of Zimbabwe, Graz and Cambridge, where she was a Livingstone Scholar.

One of the pioneer lawyers at the Advisory Centre on WTO Law in Geneva for more than a decade, she was the advisor to more than 70 African, Asian, Caribbean and Latin American governments on all aspects of trade law and policy. Before that, she worked for three years as a legal officer in the Appellate Body Secretariat of the World Trade Organization.  Petina was one of the founding faculty of Trapca, the Trade Policy Centre for Africa and served on its Advisory Academic Board.

From 2017-2019, Petina worked as a special advisor on trade policy and investment law in the Office of the President and Cabinet of the Government of Zimbabwe.  She was nominated by the Kingdom of Lesotho to serve on the Experts List for disputes arising from the SACU-MERCUSUR free trade agreement, and is currently serving as a panellist in a WTO dispute between the United States and the Russian Federation.

As well as being a lawyer, Petina is a novelist and playwright with work published in more than a dozen languages. She is the recipient of the Chautauqua Prize, the McKitterick Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and Zimbabwe’s NAMA Award.

Danlami Gomwalk is the Principal Domestic Linkages Officer with the African Natural Resources Centre of the African Development Bank.

He is responsible for coordinating the provision of advisory services to regional members countries on policies on economic and infrastructure linkages of natural resources activity to local economies in renewable and non-renewable resource development projects; increasing the impact of resources development on national economies through local content and value addition.

Danlami has experience with private sector development as well as expertise in infrastructure service delivery, infrastructure asset management and project financing.

Danlami earned a BA Engineering from Lafayette College and MS Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon University.

Babatunde Fagbayibo is currently a Professor in Law at the University of South Africa. His research primarily focuses on continental integration in Africa. Other research interests include international politics, transnational policy analysis, new paradigms of inter-state relations, critical approaches to international law, and governance and democratisation in Africa. He has written widely on issues of African integration, democracy and good governance, and development in Africa.

He also provides commentary in print and broadcast media on African affairs. His writings have appeared in academic journals, as chapters in books, and other online platforms. In 2014, he was recognised by the Young People in International Affairs (YPIA) as one of the top 35 Africans under the age of 35, for his research on supranational integration in Africa. He is the editor in chief of the Southern African Public Law Journal and serves on the editorial boards of the African Journal of Democracy and Governance (RADG), the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law (NYIL), and the Caribbean Law Review.

Pauline Anaman is a consultant with technical expertise in the law, economics, and governance of the energy and extractives sectors, as well as issues of climate change and sustainability. 

She is an External Advisor on Africa to the EU H2020 Negative Emissions (NEGEM) project; a €5.8 million project by a core group of scientists and a consortium of 16 partners across 11 European countries exploring  negative emissions technology and practices, as well as scalability pathways. She is also a Net Zero expert to the Oxford Climate Alumni Network (OxCAN); an Oxford University alumni organisation dedicated to expertise sharing and collaborations to achieve a just transition to net zero emissions. Pauline previously worked at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) as a Senior Policy Analyst and Head of Policy where she led research, policy analyses, and evidence-based advocacy on policy and governance issues across the energy and extractives sector value chain. 

Pauline has a multidisciplinary background in Law (GIMPA & Ghana School of Law), Public Policy (Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford), and Land Economy (KNUST). She is also an alumna of the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the U.S. Department of State (Energy Policy, Security, and Innovation).

Reshma has over twenty years’ experience across a broad and rare combination of expertise spanning Business Strategy & Performance, Risk Management, Change Management, Tax and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG). In the last fifteen years her work has focused on the Energy, Extractives and Infrastructure Sector primarily in Africa and the Middle East.  She has held several roles at Corporate and Operational levels including Senior Manager for KPMG UK’s Energy and Natural Resources Team, International Tax Manager for Tullow Oil Plc, Business Performance Manager and until recently Head of External Affairs for Tullow Kenya leading the Land, Water, Local Content, Security and Conflict Management, Government & Public Affairs and the Social Performance Teams.

She is now the CEO of InteStrat Services Ltd, a Kenyan company, which works with Kenyan and international clients to optimize stakeholder value (profits, environment and society) through integrative strategies and risk management with a specific focus on sustainability.

Reshma holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Manchester in the UK and an Executive MBA from École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris. She is also a UK qualified Chartered Accountant, a Chartered Tax Advisor and holds certificate in Sustainable Finance from the University of Cambridge in the UK.

Maybel is an extractive and energy professional with Bachelors’ and Master’s degrees in Economics, from the University of Ghana. She is currently the Head of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Africa Centre For Energy Policy (ACEP). Maybel leads the implementation of multi-donor projects in the energy and extractive industries on behalf of ACEP.

Her interest areas include optimizing extractive resources for inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development in Africa, promoting gender diversity in natural resource governance, and the differential impact of the energy transition on citizens.

Chicovia Scott is the GM of Commercial and Business Development of the West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo). Chicovia has 18 years of experience in both the technical and business and commercial functions with degrees from Florida A&M University in chemical engineering and a MBA from Rice University. She has held positions in or related to the oil and gas industry including process and facilities engineering and consulting and investment banking.

Within Chevron, Chicovia has held various positions over the last 13 years in the commercial and business development space within Midstream and finance in Upstream.  Additionally, Chicovia then helped to drive Chevron’s digital transformation as a team member then the GM of the Digital Innovation and Acceleration team to develop strategy and accelerate innovation across Chevron.

Currently, Chicovia is providing commercial, business development and strategic planning leadership for WAPCo.

Charles is currently the Policy Lead on Climate Change & Energy Transition at the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP).

His research focus is into risk mitigation and investment decisions in renewable energy investments in Africa.

Charles holds a Master’s degree in Operations Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Statistics, all from the University of Ghana.