14th Africa Independents Forum to hold in London in May

The 14th Africa Independents Forum 2016, held 25-26th May in London at the Waldorf Hilton, being hosted by the Global Pacific & Partners / ITE Group Plc JV, gathers together leading independents and corporate players worldwide and from across Africa, both listed and unlisted, large and small, established and new entrants.

And provides enhanced exposure to the wider Africa-wide upstream industry in oil, and gas, exploration and development, including issues in crude oil and financial markets, engaging equity financiers, banks, private equity and investors found on the AIM and LSE, in the City, Paris and Frankfurt, as well as related service and supply industry parties and transaction advisors, with specialised Africa analysts and geoscience firms drawn from around Africa, or based in Europe, United States, Australia, Asia and elsewhere.

Alongside and within the 14th Africa Independents Forum 2016, they are hosting 75th PetroAfricanus Club- World Upstream Reception: with Guest Speaker: Phil Loader, Executive Vice President, Global Exploration, Woodside Energy, Perth, Australia.

6th Global Women Petroleum & Energy Club Luncheon: with Guest Speaker: Irini Katsiani Hughes, Business Development Manager, EMEA, Statoil, London and 4th Africa's Hydrocarbon Arguments Discourse: On Shaping Africa's E&P Future.

Special Panels: on Africa Oil & Energy Finance and Investment featuring key investors and institutions funding and financing equity and debt for corporate oil and gas across Africa

This unique Forum showcases leading independent companies with acreage and portfolio assets held in the Gulf of Guinea, Northwest Africa, Maghreb-North Africa, Central Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa; and in landlocked and littoral frontier states.

Reshaped and enhanced in 2016, the Forum has 40 speakers, providing an unparalleled corporate insight into current and emerging exploration plays and capital development projects, corporate E&P strategies in-place, the winners and losers, and the unlocking of Africa's large and yet-to-find hydrocarbon reserves, as well as key insights on the state-of-Africa's geo-economics and political economy of oil, and the issues shaping the future funding of companies and ventures in Africa's upstream.

African developers who partnered with Facebook to launch products at F8 include Afrinolly (Entertainment, Nigeria), GumTree South Africa (Classifieds, South Africa),vZikoko (Entertainment, Nigeria), Jobberman (Jobs, Nigeria/Ghana), The Net (Entertainment, Nigeria) and My Music (Media, Nigeria).

In addition, this year Facebook brought F8 to developers around the world through F8 Meetups hosted with tech hubs around the world. In Africa, we hosted F8 Meetups in Nairobi, Lagos, Cape Town and Morocco where participants watched the sessions in San Francisco.

Two developer teams from Malawi won a developer challenge supported by mobile operator TNM Malawi and Facebook, and were featured on F8's international stage. Maternitech, founded by three 22-year olds – Walter Moyo, Thandie Magasa, and Daniel Mvalo, provides educational information aimed at combating Malawi's high under-18 pregnancy rate. The team was featured in an international livestream interview.

Talk To Me, an app created by 10-year old Panashe Jere, who learned to code at a Coding for Kids session at Malawi Hub. This app converts input text into voice so children always have someone to talk to. Both teams were congratulated by Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg personally for their achievements.