The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has advocated the need to establish more financial institutions in Nigeria and Africa with capacity to provide funding for energy projects in order to bridge the current energy poverty in the continent.
The Chief Financial Officer of the company, Mr. Umar Ajiya, canvassed the funding imperative on Wednesday at the 23rd Nigeria Oil Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG Energy Week) in Abuja.
Ajiya, in his contribution during a panel session at the forum with the theme ‘Accelerating Investment, Enabling Industry Growth, Meeting Energy Demand’, explained that in the face of the reluctance by global financial institutions to finance oil and gas projects as a result of environmental concerns, there was need for the development of more institutions like the Africa Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and the proposed Africa Energy Bank to finance energy infrastructure projects.
According to him, the key to resolving the paradox of endemic energy poverty in the midst of abundant energy resources in Nigeria is to create an enabling environment to aggressively attract investment into the energy sector.
The CFO identified the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the recent enactment of three Executive Orders in the sector by the President Bola Tinubu as practical steps by the Federal Government to provide fiscal incentives to attract investments into the sector.
Ajiya maintained that the task of creating an investor-friendly environment was not for government alone, pointing out that doing this is a collective responsibility of all Nigerians and other agencies or organisations involved in the import-export business value chains.
The CFO listed Gwagwalada, Kaduna, and Kano Independent Power Plants as some of the key energy projects of the NNPCL that investors can take advantage of in their investment drives in the energy sector.
