The Nigerian government has launched an energy transition plan aimed at boosting investments for energy project development to address increasing energy poverty and ensure energy sustainability.
During the launch of the plan last week, Vice President H.E Yemi Osinbajo said the west African country will need to spend an additional $10 billion in energy projects per annum from the current $400 billion to be able to provide access to energy to some 100 million Nigerians.
“The plan recognizes the role of natural gas in the short term to facilitate the establishment of this low energy capacity and address the nation’s clean cooking deficit in the form of LPG. [It also] envisions vibrant industries powered by low carbon technologies, streets lined with electric vehicles, and livelihoods enabled by sufficient and clean energy,” he said.
The plan includes Nigeria ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all of its 200 million people by 2030 and achieving net-zero by 2060 through massive investments in oil, gas, solar and other modern energy technologies such as hydrogen and electric vehicles.
With the strategy anticipated to create around 340,000 jobs by 2030 and 840,000 jobs by 2060, the vice president says the role of Nigeria’s energy sector in driving socioeconomic developments continues to expand.
To address the investment gap and ensure the targets set by Nigeria are realized, the vice president said an inter-ministerial energy transition implementation working group has been formed and is working towards raising an initial $10 billion support package for the rollout of the plan. The World Bank said it will commit $1.5 billion in investments for renewables deployment and power sector reforms while utility-scale solar project developer and off-grid solution provider Sun Africa confirmed that it is finalizing a $1.5-billion package with the US Exim Bank.
