Nigeria needs $200bn investment to address energy gap

Abuja -- Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCO, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, has bemoaned the widening energy gap in Nigeria, disclosing that the country needs between $40 billion to $200 billion worth of investments to bridge the gap.

In a presentation titled, ‘Nigeria’s Energy Security: Opportunities, Present Threats

and Key Solution Pointers,’ deliver at an energy forum in Abuja, Ojulari disclosed that 70 percent of households and small and medium scale enterprises, SMEs, have less than four hours of electricity supply per day.

He noted that this translated to 120 million people who are affected by this low power supply and that only India had a larger off-grid/bad grid population.

The SNEPCO boss explained that Nigeria needed between 30 gigawatts, GW, and 175GW to address its energy gap, adding that this would cost the country approximately $40 billion to $200 billion.

He disclosed that as a result of the poor power supply, Nigerians were using about 60 million environmentally-unfriendly diesel and petrol generators to fill

the gap left by the electricity companies.

Ojulari explained that this portends negative consequences for Nigeria’s productivity, competitiveness, employment, security, food security, nutrition, environment, health, and education.

He maintained that 70 percent of Nigeria’s installed power generation capacity is currently lost by the time it reaches the consumer, noting that this was the reason why 70 percent of households and SMEs enjoyed only four hours of electricity daily.

According to him, installed capacity losses are primarily driven by aging equipment, poor maintenance systems and culture, insufficient funding and spinning reserve.

He noted that the energy gap presented a massive opportunity for large scale onthe-grid and small scale off-grid investments.

He said: “Investment opportunities even in high density, low-income urban areas make economics more attractive. Technologies and business models exist for a cleaner, affordable and scalable solutions. Alternative energy solutions can have short term financial and social impact for investors on livelihoods and economic activity.”