News Wings

Tag: Power

  • Seplat Energy Announces Board Changes- Elumelu to succeed Udo Udoma as Chairman; Okon to succeed Brown

    Seplat Energy Announces Board Changes- Elumelu to succeed Udo Udoma as Chairman; Okon to succeed Brown

    The Board of Seplat Energy PLC has announced Board and executive management changes that will further support the Company’s growth, whilst emphasising continuity in strategy and governance.

    In the announcement, the Chairman, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, CON, has given notice of his intention to retire at the end of the year on 31 December 2026. Senator Udoma joined the Board in December 2023 and became Independent Chairman in April 2024. Since assuming the role, he has also worked closely with the Board and Management to oversee the successful integration of MPNU and setting out the 2030 strategic plan for the Company. Through his leadership and guidance, the Company has continued to thrive and play an increasingly important role in Nigeria’s energy sector.

    The Board has accordingly elected Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, CFR, as the next Chairman of Seplat Energy, effective 1 January 2027. Mr. Elumelu, who joined the Board in January 2026, is the Founder and Chairman of Heirs Holdings, which has a 20.07% shareholding in Seplat Energy. Heirs Holdings is a diversified investment company, with interests across strategic sectors of the African economy, including energy, power, banking, insurance, technology, real estate, hospitality, and healthcare. Mr. Elumelu has a multi-decade track record of value creation in listed and non-listed entities. Mr. Elumelu is also a distinguished philanthropist, globally recognised as one of the leading voices on Africa’s
    transformation and governance agenda. The Board believes this succession plan will support the Company’s strategic vision as it executes delivery of its 2030 plan and strives to accelerate the growth projects in its portfolio.

    After successfully leading the Company during a period of significant strategic expansion and transformation, including the acquisition of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (‘MPNU’), Mr. Roger Brown will retire as Chief Executive Officer and as a Board Director on 31 July 2026. During Mr. Brown’s 13-year tenure, initially as the Company’s CFO through its landmark dual listing in 2014 and for the past 6 years as CEO, Seplat Energy has grown significantly through a combination of financial discipline, asset development and successful acquisitions, including Eland Oil and Gas in 2019 and the transformational acquisition of MPNU in 2024. Under Mr. Brown’s leadership, Seplat Energy has established itself as one of Africa’s leading independent energy companies, with a strong pipeline of organic growth projects.

    The Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Engr. Effiong Okon as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director commencing 1 August 2026. An accomplished leader with over 35 years of global industry expertise, he brings a formidable track record of operational excellence and strategic execution. He is deeply familiar with the organization having been with the Company since 2018, initially serving on Seplat Energy’s Board as Operations Director for four years, then as our New Energy Director and most recently as Managing Director of ANOH Gas Processing Company (AGPC), where he successfully drove the project’s execution to achieve first gas in January 2026. Prior to joining Seplat Energy, Engr. Effiong cultivated a globally diverse operations portfolio during a distinguished career at Royal Dutch Shell spanning Africa, the USA, Europe, and the Middle East.

    Mr. Roger Brown, Chief Executive Officer, said: “It has been the greatest pleasure to be part of Seplat Energy’s growth since joining in 2013 as CFO and having led the Company as CEO since August 2020. I am immensely proud that we have built a Company that has now become synonymous with financial resilience, balanced capital allocation strong corporate governance and shareholder reward. The Company is a strong and reliable partner to the Government and is well placed to support Nigeria in its ambitious growth targets. I want to personally thank the Board, Management and the entire workforce for all the support they have given me over the years, and I look forward to watching the Company grow from strength to strength.”

    Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, Chairman of Seplat Energy, commented: “On behalf of the entire Company, I wish to express our sincerest thanks to Roger for his exceptional contribution to the development of Seplat Energy into a leading African independent energy company. His legacy was cemented in the transformational acquisition of MPNU in 2024 and in the Roadmap 2030 strategy that we set out in 2025. Roger has been ever present in Seplat Energy’s journey and under his leadership, Seplat Energy has materially outperformed the sector and delivering exceptional returns to shareholders; he leaves us well-placed to continue to deliver for all our stakeholders. I would also like to
    welcome Mr. Okon as our incoming CEO. He has extensive operational experience that will support our ambitious growth aspirations.”

    Mr. Effiong Okon, Incoming Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am delighted to be taking on this appointment at an important juncture. My immediate focus will be on ensuring the Company executes the 2030 Roadmap, alongside development of the long-term plan to ensure we deliver on the immense potential inherent in our portfolio.”

    Mr. Tony O. Elumelu, Incoming Chairman of Seplat Energy, commented: “I am honoured to succeed Senator Udoma as Chairman in January 2027 and to lead the Board through Seplat Energy’s next phase of growth. I firmly believe in the critical role indigenous resources play in the economic transformation of Nigeria and Africa, and Seplat Energy’s culture of execution and governance aligns strongly with my own values. I thank Senator Udoma and Roger for their stewardship and look forward to delivering further value for shareholders. I also congratulate Mr. Okon on his appointment as Chief Executive Officer. His deep industry experience gives me great confidence that Seplat Energy is well positioned for its next chapter of growth.”

  • Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund Eyes Partnership with Dangote Group on Africa Investments

    Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund Eyes Partnership with Dangote Group on Africa Investments

    The President/Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has held a high-level meeting with Nicolai Tangen, the Chief Executive Officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund manager, overseeing assets valued at approximately $1.9 trillion.

    At the meeting, the Norwegian investment institution expressed strong interest in partnering with Dangote Group to expand its footprint across the African continent, with a focus on strategic sectors including power, energy, renewables, agriculture, fertiliser and cement.

    Also present at the meeting were Svein Tore Holsether, Chief Executive Officer of Yara International, one of the world’s leading fertiliser and agricultural companies, and Terje Pilskog, Chief Executive Officer of Scatec, a global renewable energy company.

    The engagement shows growing global investor confidence in Africa’s industrial and infrastructure potential, as well as the increasing role of indigenous conglomerates such as Dangote Group in driving large-scale economic transformation.

    For Dangote Group, the potential partnership represents a significant opportunity to deepen its investments across key sectors critical to Africa’s development, particularly in energy transition, food security and industrial capacity expansion.

    The Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, widely regarded as a benchmark for global institutional investment, has in recent years shown increased interest in emerging markets, with Africa seen as a frontier for long-term value creation.

    The collaboration between the fund and Dangote Group could unlock substantial capital flows into critical infrastructure and industrial projects, further accelerating economic growth and regional integration across the continent.

  • Vertiv Announces Expansion of Manufacturing Capacity Spanning Infrastructure Solutions, Power, and Rack Systems, to Meet Rising Demand

    Vertiv Announces Expansion of Manufacturing Capacity Spanning Infrastructure Solutions, Power, and Rack Systems, to Meet Rising Demand

    …New and expanded Americas manufacturing facilities to support high-density applications with solutions to drive speed of deployment and scalable infrastructure.

    Vertiv, a global leader in critical digital infrastructure, today announced four new or expanding manufacturing facilities in the Americas, growing the company’s production capacity for infrastructure solutions, power management, and integrated cabinets. As data centre operators focus on scaling quickly and time to first token speed, Vertiv is uniquely positioned to help meet the rapidly evolving infrastructure and services requirements for AI factories, through its focus on innovation and manufacturing footprint. 

    “Vertiv sees AI as a long-term, secular trend, and we are accelerating our capacity expansions to anticipate the continued growth in demand,” said Vertiv CEO Giordano (Gio) Albertazzi. “Today’s announcement represents the most recent steps in our continuous capacity planning and deployment approach, as we further increase our regional and global footprint. We remain committed to our strategy of delivering future-ready, high-density solutions that enable our customers to plan confidently for multiple generations of compute ahead.”

    ·       In South Carolina, two additional manufacturing facilities focus on Vertiv™ infrastructure solutions technologies vital to data centre deployment speed and are expected to increase regional capacity by ~7x when fully ramped. Vertiv™ integrated power modules are complete modular power infrastructure that can speed deployment of power systems by up to 50% over traditional builds, while Vertiv™ SmartRun converged, prefabricated white space infrastructure solution is designed to greatly accelerate and optimise data centre white space fit-out. Vertiv SmartRun is delivered as a unified system for high-density busway, liquid cooling piping, networking, and containment, with on-site deployment time up to 85% faster than traditional methods. 

    ·       Vertiv’s racks and containment business in Pennsylvania launched an additional facility to increase manufacturing capacity of cabinets with integrated cooling systems for AI applications in high-density data centres. These cabinets enable simplified, repeatable, and accelerated deployment compared to traditional onsite integration.

    ·       An expansion in Mexicali, Mexico is anticipated to increase regional capacity by ~45% for power conversion, conditioning and distribution technologies for high-density AI applications and more traditional loads. 

    Vertiv’s innovation and portfolio strategy reflects the demands of the AI revolution, which requires infrastructure that works as one integrated system. From grid to chip and chip to heat reuse, Vertiv delivers end-to-end infrastructure where power, cooling, IT, and services operate in unison and are built for multiple compute generations ahead. Backed by the recent regional manufacturing capacity and an industry-leading end-to-end portfolio, Vertiv is enabling customers to deploy efficiently and scale seamlessly.

  • Vertiv Brings Converged Physical Infrastructure to NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factories

    Vertiv Brings Converged Physical Infrastructure to NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI Factories

    …Simulation-ready power and cooling infrastructure models, designed to accelerate deployment and reduce execution risk

    Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global leader in critical digital infrastructure, today announced its role in advancing converged physical infrastructure designs for the NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX AI factory reference design and the NVIDIA Omniverse DSX Blueprint.

    As AI factories scale in density, complexity, and power demand, operators are under pressure to compress time to deployment, improve infrastructure utilisation, and reduce integration risk. A new infrastructure design approach that reduces complexity, improves confidence before buildout, and accelerates time to capacity is now available to meet these evolving needs. Through its work with NVIDIA, Vertiv is contributing simulation-ready, or DSX SimReady digital power and cooling assets, validated interfaces, and repeatable infrastructure building blocks designed to help customers deploy AI factories faster and with greater operational assurance.

    This work reflects an expansion of Vertiv’s established approach to converged physical infrastructure—a system-level model that integrates power, cooling, controls, and services into interdependent designs optimised across the full power train and thermal chain. This approach is enabled through five foundational elements: repeatable building blocks, defined interfaces, system orchestration, digital continuity, and lifecycle support. Together, these elements support more scalable AI factory execution by helping reduce design complexity, strengthen coordination across infrastructure domains, and improve confidence from initial design through deployment and operation.

    At the core of this approach is a scalable building block architecture designed around the standardised 12.5MW infrastructure blocks of Vertiv™ OneCore integrated modular solutions that can be combined, configured, and extended to support deployments ranging from smaller AI clusters to gigawatt-scale AI factories. By establishing repeatable block-level designs with validated interfaces, Vertiv aims to simplify scaling while improving deployment consistency, system coordination, and operational performance.

    “AI factories are forcing a fundamental change in how digital infrastructure is designed, validated, and deployed,” said Scott Armul, chief product and technology officer at Vertiv. “Vertiv’s role is to help turn complex AI infrastructure from a collection of separate products into converged, simulation-ready physical systems. Working with NVIDIA, we are helping customers move faster from design to deployment. By combining our power and cooling portfolio with validated interfaces and digital models, we can help customers accelerate development, improve operational confidence, and unlock better output per watt.”

    Vertiv’s collaboration supports the development of digitally validated AI factory infrastructure using real-time simulation and system-level modelling before physical deployment begins. This approach is designed to help customers:

    ·       reduce deployment complexity and field integration risk,

    ·       accelerate time to operational readiness,

    ·       improve infrastructure coordination across power, cooling, and controls,

    ·       and optimise performance from grid connection through chip-level thermal management and heat-reuse pathways.

    Vertiv’s contribution is grounded in its ability to bring together one of the industry’s most complete portfolios of critical power, thermal management, integrated controls, and lifecycle services into a cohesive converged physical infrastructure. Unlike conventional modular or prefabricated approaches that primarily compress schedule, converged physical infrastructure is intended to deliver both deployment speed and compounding system-level gains. By standardising interfaces and creating repeatable building blocks, Vertiv aims to support more scalable AI factory execution while enabling improved performance, efficiency, and reliability.

    “As AI factories scale to unprecedented levels of power and density, enterprises require a converged approach to physical infrastructure that unifies power, cooling, and digital twin simulation to reduce deployment risk,” said Vladimir Troy, vice president of AI Infrastructure at NVIDIA. “By integrating simulation-ready infrastructure models into the NVIDIA Vera Rubin DSX design, Vertiv is providing the repeatable building blocks and validated interfaces necessary to accelerate the path from design to operational readiness.”

    This collaborative output, Vertiv™ OneCore Rubin DSX, is a design outcome grounded in converged physical infrastructure that Vertiv will continue to iterate for multiple compute generations ahead. It is intended to support AI factory builders with parameterised infrastructure models and deployment-ready building blocks that span power, cooling, controls, and lifecycle services.

    Vertiv expects this work to inform future converged infrastructure offerings across hyperscale, colocation, enterprise, and emerging AI deployment environments.

    For more information on Vertiv solutions for AI infrastructure, visit Vertiv.com.