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By Adewale Sanyaolu
Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries would require about $33 trillion to bridge the region’s infrastructure gap.
Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company(NNPC) Limited, Mr. Mele Kyari, stated this during CEOs session at the ongoing Nigeria Internatiinal Energy Summit(NIES) in Abuja, yesterday.
Kyari said for Africa to be among the region to achieve the energy transition mandate, its huge infrastructure deficit must be bridged.
The NNPC CEO said energy poverty still remains a major obstacle in Africa and must be addressed before it can step towards energy transition. He disclosed that the $33 trillion was required over the next 20 years to plug the region’s infrastructure gap.
Kyari worried that the $33 trillion funding need was huge resources, saying it may be nearly impossible to get such resources.
He warned that if the funding need was not sourced in 20 years, the infrastructure gap cannot be closed.
In addressing the infrastructure gap, he said electricity remains a major factor, adding that the 5,000MW of electricity generated by Nigeria was grossly inadequate to enable it achieve the energy transition agenda.
For Nigeria, he said the country requires about 30,000MW to 40,0000 to meet its its energy needs.
He said the current 5,000MW cannot keep the country running because population and rural – urban migration is growing the day.
According to him, the source of the $33 trillion is a major constraint, saying not all African countries are fortunate to have the enormous wealth of natural resources that Nigeria has, especially oil.
‘’We cannot say we have the enormous level of fossil fuel and gas to attract the funding need to bridge the infrastructure gap.I don’t want to be a prophet of doom but I don’t see where the line of resources to close this infrastructure gap will come from in 20 years to come’’.
On what can be done, he said we need to be more productive so that industrial growth could be accelerated in order to close the infrastructure gap in the short term so that the level of economic growth could attract some level of the $33 trillion required.
The NNPC boss maintained that the infrastructure question cannot be addressed without the provision of adequate electricity, saying Nigeria must answer questions around its electricity conundrum so that industries and businesses can grow.
He added that about three months ago, people in Sokoto could not get charcoal to buy ditto for cooking gas, saying even if they have rice they cannot cook it. This, he said, remained the reason why the issue of electricity should become a priority.
‘’I am aware that some power projects are going on to aid in power evacuation. But these are projects that will take another two years to be completed.
Some power plants cannot operate their turbines at full capacity because of they do, there are no evacuation mechanisms for the electricity generated.
Kyari admitted that energy transition is real and the only way out of it is to concentrate more on the energy of today is by getting more investment into the industry by producing more oil and gas as this gives you more revenue for the future energy.
He explained that part of what NNPC is doing is to replace dirty fuel with cleaner energy but taking away LPFO and diesel from industries and replacing same with gas. This he said is already happening with industries in the Ota area in Ogun State.
He said the Ajaokuta-Kano-Kaduna(AKK) gas pipeline project is another of such that will boost industrial activities around the Northern corridor for the purpose of industrial growth.
The project according to him will deliver about eight to 10 billion standard cubic feet of gas when when completed. He admitted that gas pricing is still an issue in the industry but admitted that the Petroleum Industry Act(PIA) will eventually address that.
