FG charts new multibillion dollar energy devt path

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume has laid out what industry leaders are already calling one of the Tinubu administration’s most detailed financing roadmaps towards mobilising billions of dollars for Nigeria’s energy future.

Speaking before an elite gathering of geoscientists, financiers, and oil and gas executives at the annual conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) at Eko Hotels, Lagos, Akume declared that Nigeria stands “at a historic intersection where hydrocarbon dependence and global climate realities now confront one another.”

With a theme centred on “Financing the Future of Nigeria’s Energy Sector: Navigating Energy Transition and Driving Sustainable Development,” the SGF’s keynote address which was delivered by his Special Adviser (Technical Operations), Prof Babatunde Bolaji Benard, captured both the anxiety and opportunity reshaping Nigeria’s energy industry – an industry that remains the country’s fiscal backbone but is increasingly under global pressure to evolve.

Emphasizing a dual mandate of growing Nigeria’s hydrocarbon value while funding energy transition, Senator Akume reminded the audience that over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings still come from the oil and gas sector, stressing that the country cannot afford a reckless transition but instead, the nation must “maximize value from existing hydrocarbon endowments” while simultaneously building a diversified and resilient energy future.

“Our transition must be just, equitable, orderly, pragmatic and people-centered,” he stressed, warning that Nigeria cannot decarbonize “at the expense of energy access or national growth.”

One of the strongest elements of his address was the government’s position on the on-going divestment of International Oil Companies (IOCs) from Nigeria’s onshore and shallow-water assets. Akume described the trend as a “dual-edged reality.”