A Leader in the Energy Sector in Africa

When you think of the CEO of an Energy Company in Africa, you don’t tend to associate them with youth, style and charisma. Welcome to Springfield Energy where their CEO Kevin Okyere embodied these qualities at the age of 41.

Springfield Oil is in the energy sector, and the work they do touches the lives of many people in Africa. It can be difficult to understand what people in the oil and gas sector do. In simple terms, anything that requires energy benefits from the oil and gas sector. The energy required to deliver water and electricity to your home benefits from the sector. Products like vaseline, car tyres and plastic also do the same.

Springfield Oil is the first Ghanaian company to venture into oil and gas exploration. The vision of Kevin Okyere is to be a leader in this sector. Success means more companies can follow in their footsteps and make a contribution to the energy challenges faced in Africa.

Who is Kevin Okyere?

Kevin is a Ghanaian entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of Springfield Group. He started the oil business in 2008, and it’s now a billion-dollar company. He was born in 1980 to an affluent family in the Ashanti region of Ghana. The family’s fortune came from construction, steel manufacturing and large-scale cocoa farming. 

Kevin Okyere had the spirit of entrepreneurship at a very young age. Though his family were well-to-do, he could be found selling ice-water to football supporters at the stadium near where he lived. This earned him the name “Eddie Murphy”, in reference to the Coming to America movie.

How Kevin Okyere is leading the Energy Sector in Africa

 Africa being a developing continent means opportunities for new business and innovation abound. We sometimes lack the confidence to start a venture anew. Kevin Okyere is setting an example to Ghanaians and Africans; they can also do it. His company is the first to venture into oil and gas exploration in Ghana. This is a great testament to what is possible when you put your mind to it and remove limitations. 80% of the employees in his leader’s team are women which is also a great feat in providing work equality.

He could have started a real estate enterprise and done well for himself and his family. As an African living on the continent and witnessing the challenges of power and a growing need for the future, he knew something had to be done. He wasn’t going to sit back and let a foreign company come in with solutions for Africa.

Africans are more capable and need to rely on their own ability to build and create solutions for themselves instead of relying on outside help.

The vision of Springfield Oil is to create new jobs in the oil and gas sector that have never existed to benefit the population. The company is able to send gas to land-locked countries in other parts of Africa. They are also building infrastructure to power electric charge points that will power electric cars on the continent.

The use of Natural gas is being used to bolster Ghana’s energy sector. It is being used in fertiliser plants and factories which leads to the industrialisation of the agricultural sector. Progress in this area should lead to the reduction of power shortages in Ghana and put us in a position to export energy to others facing similar challenges.

Achievements of Kevin Oyere

The Kevin Okyere Foundation is a charity working to support education and health across Ghana. It pays for the education of thousands of schoolchildren and offers free school shoes. The foundation funds the hospital bills of some of the poorest including heart surgery to save their lives.

His foundation is providing water to many remote villages and investing in the healthcare sector in these areas.

Kevin was awarded the 2019 Emy Africa Award as the man of the Year in the Oil and Gas category.

Kevin Okyere is quite active on LinkedIn, so you have to check him out and follow his journey