Professor Barth Nnaji, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Geometric Power Group and former Minister of Power under President Goodluck Jonathan has called upon Nigeria to stop being a country that imports what it has the full capacity to produce locally.
Professor Nnaji made this call as the Guest Speaker of the 2025 Bullion Lecture themed “Architecting the Energy Sector for Nigeria’s $1-Trillion Economy Vision” held in Lagos last week organised by Centre for Financial Journalism.
In his lead paper titled “Nigeria in the Global Energy Transition Era”, Professor Nnaji said “we should stop being a country that imports what we have full capacity to produce.
“I am confident that we are blessed with incredibly talented people who, if given a chance, will deliver us to this destination of sustainable energy.”
Nnaji canvasses for transition to full utilization of natural gas and reduce reliance on coal and oil as means of generating electric power.
“Though a fossil fuel, natural gas is environmentally more efficient than coal and oil, the other two fossil fuels. A combined-cycle gas-fired power plant can generate double the power produced by a hydroelectric turbine of the same capacity or any other because it uses both a gas turbine and a steam turbine to generate power.
“It also contributes to environmental protection by capturing and utilizing the waste heat from the gas turbine.
“If you have a state-of-the-art gas fired power plant like the 188MW General Electric Plant in Aba, the noise and carbon emission levels will be reduced to the barest minimum. Of course, it is also considerably cheaper to build a gas power plant than a solar power plant or even a hydroelectric power plant of the same size.
“For Nigeria, a country blessed with enormous gas resources, gas fired power plants is irresistible.
Nnaji predicates his advocacy on the abundance of gas deposit in Nigeria.
“Nigeria has 209.26 trillion cubic feet of gas. This means it is the 9th country in the world with the highest natural gas deposit. It is, indeed, inexplicable that Nigeria should be struggling with gas for its 24 gas-fired plants, with over 80 million persons with no electricity access.
“In contrast, Algeria, with 2.9 trillion cubic feet, has long provided electricity access to all its citizens and built very good educational institutions, including an internationally recognized technical university. Algeria has one of the three largest Africa’s economies.
“Nigeria has the fourth largest. The Nigerian government has to find innovative ways to utilize the humungous gas resources in the country.
While its efforts to earn foreign exchange through gas, including constructing gas pipelines to North Africa to export our gas to Europe, the domestic need has to be first because charity starts from home.
Nnaji notes that substantial investments in gas will “encourage more thermal plants which the country needs. The country currently generates about 5,500MW, but it should be up to 30,000MW by 2030, according to the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry in its Vision 30:30:30.
“NESI envisions that by 2030 the country will not only produce 30,000MW but also that 30% will come from renewables.
“I believe that the country should aim at 100,000MW by 2040, so that we can become a higher medium economic power by then. However, it is doubtful that the country can generate either 30,000 MW by 2030, as envisioned by NESI, or 100,000 MW by 2040, as I advocate.
“This is because of the suspension of the guarantee instrument for Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
“As Dr Musiliu Oseni, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Vice Chairman, has argued eloquently, without new PPAs, no new plants will be built. The establishment of such plants as the ExxonMobil Power plant, OMA Power by the JV of Geometric Power and General Electric and others has been in abeyance because of the suspension of the PPAs.
“It is costly to build a plant—approximatelyUS$1.5 million per MW. No investors will build any without at least a Partial Risk Guarantee (PRG).
“To achieve the desired power adequacy of over 100,000 MW, the Nigerian Government has a critical role to play.
“We should never forget that for any country’s economy to keep growing it must keep growing its energy stock year-on-year.
Professor Nnaji tasks Nigerians to reflect on the following
- One of the leaders of carbon reduction effort in the world is the United States. After nearly 30 years’ effort, here are the sources of fuel for power generation in the US: Renewables of all types are 21.4%; Nuclear is 18.6%; and Fossil fuel is 60%. The fossil fuel is made up of coal 16.2%, petroleum 0.8% and natural gas 43%.
- In all the initiatives, no country undertakes the journey of carbon emission without considering sustainable energy security for its people.
- In considering achievement of climate change objectives, Nigeria should therefore focus on energy security for the nation.
- The country should not join the “tree huggers” of the world because they will abandon the “ship” of climate change initiatives once their own energy security is threatened.
- We should recognize that natural gas is a transition fuel. Therefore, we should not be cowed to classify it as a classic fossil fuel to be extinguished immediately. This fuel is our energy ticket to sustainable economic development.
- The Nigerian Government(s) should employ the already tested approaches to collaborate with the private sector to quickly progress power availability to the level that matches our country’s sustainable economic growth desire.
- There should be recognition that movement towards use of electric vehicles will require significant improvement in electric power availability as well as recharging stations infrastructure.
- There should be recognition that the desired power availability will require significantly improved natural gas production for domestic use.
- I encourage different states of this nation to consider working with capable private sector operators to employ a variety of the Aba Integrated Power project model where power plant is embedded in the DisCO.
- I encourage Governments to ring-fence power availability initiatives from the usual projects where officials corruptively compromise. Let them say, “this is my altruistic gift to my people”
“A nation’s energy security strategy cannot be dictated by the latest buzzword”, Nnaji concluded.
- Alex Ekemenah