Nigeria should make investments at the least $10 billion yearly for the following decade to shut its crippling energy deficit and unlock significant financial development, in keeping with Tony Attah, managing director and CEO of Renaissance Africa Vitality Co. Ltd.
Talking on the College of Ibadan Alumni Affiliation Worldwide Annual Lecture & Homecoming on Friday, Attah warned that Nigeria’s continual power shortages have grow to be a “developmental emergency” that threatens nationwide competitiveness, industrialisation, and human capital progress.
“Nigeria requires a minimal of 200,000 megawatts of power-generating capability to satisfy its developmental wants,” Attah mentioned, noting that the nation at present manages to produce lower than 5,000 MW to greater than 200 million individuals. “To have a preventing probability, we have to make investments over $10 billion per yr for the following 10 years.”
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The occasion, held on the College of Ibadan and attended by prime authorities officers, business leaders, and lecturers, targeted on the theme “Vitality Safety and Financial Sustainability: The Position of Nigeria’s Oil & Gasoline Sector in Nationwide Growth.”
Regardless of considerable power assets, together with 37 billion barrels of crude oil, 210 trillion cubic toes of pure fuel, and among the world’s finest photo voltaic radiation, Nigeria stays “power poor,” Attah mentioned.
Greater than 85 million Nigerians lack entry to electrical energy, whereas unreliable provide prices Africa’s largest financial system an estimated $29 billion yearly in misplaced productiveness.
“Nigeria is a land of power abundance, however we’re power poor,” Attah said. “This isn’t only a technical failure; it’s a developmental emergency.”
He underscored the human price of the power disaster, recounting tales of midwives delivering infants underneath cellphone torchlight, rural communities dwelling in perpetual darkness, and over 100,000 deaths yearly from indoor air air pollution attributable to firewood and kerosene.
“Vitality isn’t a commodity. It’s the oxygen of contemporary life,” he mentioned. “With out dependable and inexpensive power, no nation can really prosper.”
With world power markets stabilising and the power transition timeline turning into extra pragmatic, Attah argued that pure fuel represents Nigeria’s finest near-term alternative for industrialisation.
He described fuel as each “a transition and vacation spot gasoline”, calling it Nigeria’s clearest pathway to power safety and long-term financial resilience.
The nation at present produces round 8 billion commonplace cubic toes of fuel per day, however Attah believes this determine should practically double to 14 billion scf/d to considerably energise industries and scale back manufacturing prices by as much as 50%.
“Scaling home fuel improvement is the quickest strategy to stabilise the financial system, improve foreign exchange inflows, and create jobs,” Attah mentioned. He credited the Tinubu administration for accelerating long-delayed oil and fuel investments, together with latest divestment approvals and new incentives for upstream gamers.
Referencing Qatar’s transformation into one of many world’s wealthiest nations, with a GDP per capita above $70,000, Attah mentioned Nigeria should undertake an energy-led improvement mannequin.
“Historical past has proven that no nation has achieved sustainable financial development with out first securing its power base,” he mentioned. “Qatar constructed a $450 billion sovereign wealth fund on the again of fuel. Nigeria can obtain the identical with the precise insurance policies and management dedication.”
Attah outlined Renaissance Africa Vitality’s technique to grow to be a number one participant in home fuel provide, citing multibillion-dollar tasks comparable to Opukushi and Assa North–Ohaji South geared toward delivering 1 billion scf/d of fuel by 2030, sufficient to energy over 5 million houses day by day.
He mentioned the corporate is prioritising sustainability by lowering fuel flaring and supporting Nigeria’s fuel commercialisation programme. Renaissance has additionally begun investing strategically throughout the home fuel worth chain to stimulate industrial development.
“Our mission is easy: to catalyse the power emancipation of Nigeria and Africa,” Attah mentioned. “Not by way of charity, however by way of collaboration and African-led options.”
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Attah urged the College of Ibadan, and tutorial establishments throughout Nigeria to place themselves as engines of innovation for the nation’s power transition.
“There isn’t any motive why the power options this college wants shouldn’t be engineered right here,” he mentioned, calling for student-led innovation hubs, expanded engineering analysis, and expertise partnerships with business.
“The following technology of power leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs are right here on this campus right now. They need to not be observers.”
Attah closed the lecture with a name for a nationally coordinated, multi-stakeholder method to power reform, together with coverage coherence throughout ministries, investment-friendly laws, and community-driven renewable options.
“Allow us to construct a Nigeria the place power is now not a bottleneck, however a bridge to survival and prosperity,” he mentioned. “The longer term isn’t one thing we enter; it’s one thing we create. Let the true African renaissance start.”
