Africa Oil & Power Conference
By Frederico Hama
The week of October 6th, I got an opportunity to attend the Africa Oil and Power Conference in Cape town, South Africa. Africa Oil & Power is Africa’s premier platform for energy investment and policy. During their conference and other events, AOP brings together high-level individuals from private sector companies with interests including engineering, construction, services, consulting, power generation, and finance.
During AOP, I had the privilege to meet different leaders across the African continent and pitch about my business, KBH Consultancy. KBH Consultancy aims to provide access to higher education to prospective students within the African continent.
In this conference I was able to make several partnerships to support my organization in various ways. One which includes, the Executive Chairman of African Energy Chamber, NJ Ayuk. He says, “If you are able to find young woman who are willing to study Engineering or sciences, I will give or help your company raise more than $120,000.”
It’s amazing how our dreams can turn into reality once we find individuals that seriously believe in what we do. Keep chasing after your dreams and keep pursuing that idea.
I want to say a big thank you to the University of Rochester for supporting me throughout the trip, not only financially but also allowing me to take a week off classes to go pursue my idea. I also want to extend my gratitude to all KBH Consultancy members for helping me prepare for this trip. Lastly, I want to say thank you to all my friends who have always supported and believed that this idea is worth fighting for.
Federico Hama ’20 is a fourth-year student at the University of Rochester, studying Mechanical Engineering. Originally from Luanda, Angola, he is an alumnus of African Leadership Academy and a 2018 Xerox Research Scholar. Frederico was part of the men’s track and field at the University of Rochester in his first two years of college.
He aspires to greatly impact the lives of people through emerging technologies, by being part of a workforce that creates affordable, clean and reliable energy. At the same time, he is an ardent supporter of education. Upon completing his first year of college, together with two other students, they founded a company called KBH Consultancy with the aim of providing African students with access to higher education.
