70% of Nigerians lack access to clean energy - Kyari

Port Harcourt -- The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPC, Mr. Mele Kyari, says the country has a huge energy deficit as 70percent of Nigerians do not have access to clean energy for cooking.

Kyari also disclosed that 50percent of Nigerians lack access to electricity, maintaining that no public wealth creation endeavour can achieve any meaningful success without energy security.

The NNPC Ltd boss who spoke during a presentation at the Ministry of Finance Incorporated, MOFI, Public Wealth Management Conference, noted that every other wealth-creating activities, such as agriculture, rely heavily on one form of energy or the other to thrive.

Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd, Olufemi Soneye, in a statement quoted Kyari as listing some of the impediments to the achievement of energy security in Nigeria, to include lack of investment in the energy sector due to uncertainty in the business environment and multiple taxation.

"If you don’t have energy, you don’t have agriculture. You can do all the agriculture, but you can’t take it to the market, you may not be able to preserve it, you can’t even export it. So, all those indices are clearly connected to the ability to create energy.

"Nigeria has a huge energy deficit, with about 70percent of the population lacking access to clean cooking fuel and over 50percent lacking access to electricity.

"In the last 10 years, less than 3 percent of the total investment flow into Africa came into Nigeria," the statement quoted Kyari.

Kyari in the statement, however, assured that NNPC Ltd. was working hard to lay the foundation for sustainable wealth creation by filling the energy deficit gap.