The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) stated that with Senator Bola Tinubu’s election as president-elect of Nigeria, the next administration must move swiftly and broadly to implement the nation’s energy transition.
The council observed that African nations like Nigeria, which depend on dirtier fuels for both export money and domestic energy, are challenged by the current push towards net-zero.
Although NRGI stated in a monthly email update that the country’s situation offers Nigeria the chance to transition its own energy system in order to improve energy access, reduce pollution from the extraction of oil and gas, and develop industries to supply this transition, citizens must have a better understanding of and a greater say in the plan for the country’s energy transition.
NGRI stated that there was a need to reduce the danger to Nigeria’s reliant economy and criticized the major candidates for failing to mention the nation’s $1.9 trillion transition plan.
“As Nigeria’s oil export customers transition their own energy systems and reduce demand for Nigerian oil, Nigeria’s oil-dependent economy and government finances will be increasingly exposed to risk, which the energy transition plan does not adequately acknowledge.”
“Nigeria’s next government should map risks to government revenues, employment, foreign exchange, supply chains, and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) investments,” NRGI stated in the document created by Tengi George Ikoli, a senior officer with the NRGI’s Nigeria program, and Nafi Chinery, the organization’s interim director for Africa and West Africa (Anglophone) regional manager.
The organization urged Nigeria to attract investment from donors, financial institutions, and philanthropists in order to implement its energy transition strategy and diversify its economy beyond oil. It also called for spending that promotes sustainable development beyond oil.
It read: “The new government should provide incentives that encourage tangible investments in infrastructure, human resources, technology and other areas essential to delivering on the ETP rather than taking on unsustainable debt.”
Additionally, NRGI requested that the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning make sure that the energy plan was in line with all current federal and state plans.
The Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development must first address legacy mining issues, including environmental degradation and related social conflict, to minimize the impacts before seeking to benefit, the institute stressed, as transition minerals, such as lithium, become more important in the global transition.
It asked the government to make clear what expectations it has for the use of gas for domestic energy systems and economic development, adding that it must identify the physical, financial, and system shortcomings that have thwarted prior attempts to expand gas use.
Insisting that significant investment in gas would be needed to promote its use as a transition fuel and cut spending on oil, as laid out in the plan, NRGI urged seamless collaboration and buy-in to the goals of the plan from government institutions.
“NRGI has found that oil-producing communities, women and youth groups appear to be the least consulted and prioritized in the current ETP. Implementing it requires buy-in and active participation. Few Nigerians understand the plan, how it applies to average people, or their role in making it a success. Citizens cannot get behind a plan that they don’t understand—especially if they are to change energy use (from petrol and diesel to power businesses and households, and from kerosene and charcoal for electricity and cooking) to the solar and biogas sources the plan envisions,” it said.
