The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other critical stakeholders in the gas sector have raised concerns over electricity deficit in the country, noting that it hampers investments in gas development.
Speaking at Nigeria International Petroleum Summit in Abuja recently, Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, lamented that most businesses in the country rely on generators for electricity.
“For this country and very many of us in sub-Saharan Africa, what we worry about today is actually the meals of today. There are many who can’t afford a meal a day. And of course, electricity is largely a luxury; it’s only for the elite like all of us here.
“It is the dream of very many to have I-pass-my-neighbour in their homes. When you say, ‘Do not use fossil fuel,’ you are saying that ‘park this.’ You have not provided alternatives. The world has not looked at their situation. The world has not recognized that there is abject poverty in the communities,” Kyari said.
Also speaking, the Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development, Osagie Okunbor, emphasized the need to de-risk the entire value chain for issues like gas supply to power plants.
According to Okunbor, oil and gas production, which reportedly accounted for 90 per cent of the country’s export revenues, only contributed 10 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.
“What that essentially says is that the multiplier effect of having these important resources simply doesn’t exist. I was staggered to see a sheer number of people in this country across all geopolitical zones who rely on firewood as a primary source of energy.”