Organization of Africa's oil producing countries relocate headquarters to Congo Brazzaville

The African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), Tuesday, agreed to relocate the headquarters of the organization from Nigeria to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

The Council of Ministers approved the recommendation to move the temporary Headquarters of the Organization from Abuja, Nigeria to the permanent Headquarters in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

It also approved the new Host Country Agreement between the Republic of Congo and APPO, and directed the Secretary General of the Organization, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim to sign it on behalf of the organization.

The APPO Headquarters was temporarily moved to Abuja in 2018 when Nigeria assumed the Presidency of the organization with a mandate to execute the approved reform programme.

In the course of this reform, new Minimum Requirements for the hosting of the Headquarters were approved and the hosting right of the Headquarters was opened to all Member Countries interested to contest.

This is how Nigeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea and the host country Republic of Congo indicated interest. All the new entrants for the hosting of the headquarters withdrew and left Congo as sole candidate.

A Ministerial delegation visited Brazzaville to evaluate the extent of compliance by Congo with the Minimum Requirements and was pleased with the result, which informed the decision to go back to Brazzaville.

The Council of Ministers further took a decision, in view of the global Corona virus pandemic to postpone the planned first ever Summit of the Heads of State and Government of APPO Member Countries earlier scheduled to hold in Brazzaville in 2020, to a date in 2021.