Nigeria needs $1trn to modernise energy infrastructure

Nigeria requires about $1trillion to modernise its energy infrastructure in 29 years, Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has said.

Professor Osinbajo stated this on Thursday at the opening of a two-day National Energy and Climate Change Summit, taking place at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Ministry of Science and Technology organised the summit in collaboration with the International Energy Charter, IECh, secretariat and the European Union.

Professor Osinbajo, who was represented by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu said the Nigerian government was doing a lot to attract both foreign direct and domestic investment into the energy sector.

He said the Energy Investment Risk Assessment Report, presented at the summit, “which featured four performance indicators has scored our energy investment risk as moderate.”

According to him the Energy Investment Risk Assessment Report followed the signing, 18months ago, of the International Energy Charter Political Declaration after President Muhammadu Buhari approved it.

He said Nigeria joined the charter as an observer member state after the event, which also took place in the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said the Energy Commission of Nigeria, ECN, also signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the International Energy Charter Secretariat “in order to promote such activities that will be beneficial to our dear nation.”

Mitigating global warming
The Vice President said Nigeria’s “energy and energy related policies are not only geared towards energy supply security but also to mitigate global warning.”

“Our nationally determined contributions to the Paris Climate Protocol are robust,” he stated.

The Vice President also said that the Nigerian government has worked to support private investment by increasing transparency and openness in governance and by instituting several executive orders to remove bottlenecks in business registrations and permit.

“We are convinced that this will help us create more jobs, additional wealth and reduce poverty in our dear country.

“We will like foreign investors to work closely with local investors and professionals in line with the presidential executive order number five,” he said.

The Secretary-General of the Brussel-based International Energy Charter, Dr Urban Rusnak, highlighted the importance of a rigorous impact assessment of existing policies and subsequent policies.

“Without understanding how the policy works and what are the key performance indicators and to be able to adopt existing policies, there would be no progress; no possible development,” Rusnak said.

He also called for increase in the level of transparency and public engagement in energy investments.

“We have seen all over the world of issues of acceptance of energy investments. The most important finding is the streamline and clarification of judiciary procedures to give investment community security and feelings of the responsibility of the host nation over investments,” he added.

The Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Professor Eli Jidere Bala said the commission has keyed into the Energy Investment Risk Assessment, EIRA, project initiated in 2017 by the IECh, which “aims to identify gaps, provide learning opportunities and stimulate reforms which, make the investment climate of countries more robust and reduce the possibility of investor-state disputes.”

Professor Bala said the Energy Commission of Nigeria instituted the energy summit to serve as a forum to serve as a forum where national issues on energy are discussed with the view to facilitating the monitoring and assessment of performance of the energy sector in the execution of government policies on energy.

He said this year’s summit has the objective of assessing the investment environment in the energy sector for sustainable development.