TheCable

The federal government says it has secured $3.6 billion from its $10 billion yearly financial requirement to achieve energy transition.

At a private sector roundtable held over the weekend in Lagos, members of Nigeria’s energy transition office said the country needs $410 billion to meet its target of net-zero emissions by 2060 – an amount which translates to $10 billion annually.

They said the roundtable is aimed at securing strong private-sector partnership in support of the financing and implementation of the energy transition plan (ETP).

They also said it would define a framework for a private sector working group of net zero-committed financial institutions that will help guide the ETP resource mobilization process.

Speaking with journalists after the event, Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, head/ principal finance specialist, energy transition office (ETO), said the federal government is using a project-based approach to facilitate investments in clean energy.

“Our goal is $10bn every year. We are using a variety of methods to mobilise those resources. We have been fortunate to have over $3.6bn so far. A lot of it from the World Bank, partnership with countries like US, and the private sector,” Umar-Sadiq said.

“We think that we are on course to do nearly $8bn if some of these projects that we are speaking about today, we are going to remove the bottlenecks, we believe that we can hit over $8bn.

“For the rest – the carbon market-related financing can easily fill in the gap.”

He said the private sector has a key role to play in bridging financing gaps, and leading innovative financing solutions for Nigeria’s transition to net-zero.

“We have spent some time curating a pipeline of proven projects, both on and off-grid across the value chain, from gas flare commercialization projects to interconnected mini-grid projects to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) projects, creating an opportunity to develop synergies between the needs of these projects and the capabilities/capital of the private sector,” Umar-Sadiq said.

“The round table is about aligning the private sector investment portfolio to these energy transition efforts on one hand and also establishing a private sector working group that continues to provide stewardship required to finance and implement the energy transition plan.”

Also speaking at the event, Lanre Shasore, senior special assistant to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on planning and coordination, said the ETP would focus on increasing the use of gas over the next couple of years.