The National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) has revealed that Nigeria needs about $30 billion to meet its domestic energy needs.
This came shortly before the signing of a gas sales agreement between Dangote Fertiliser and the NNPC Limited for supply of 70 million cubic feet of gas daily for the production of fertiliser.
Speaking at the Nigerian Energy International Summit (NIES) on Wednesday, Bala Wunti, the group general manager of NAPIMS, stated that there was a need for huge investments in the gas sector as demand for oil is projected to shrink in the near future.
According to him, Nigeria requires both foreign direct investment and domestic investment to bridge its domestic energy gap.
Read also: Chevron announces acquisition of Renewable Energy Group
“What we need to do is basically to leverage upon our resource base and our resource base is gas,” Wunti said.
“We need the combination of both foreign direct investment and domestic investment so we can move on and when we get the monies we should do these things; support national development and growth by enabling economic development industrialization, support generation of electricity and support generation for foreign inflows.
“So we want to export our gas, we want to convert it to electricity but most importantly, to convert it for use in gas based industries producing fertiliser, petrochemicals.”
Commenting on the gas supply deal with Dangote fertiliser, Mele Kyari, the group managing director of NNPC Limited, said the gas would be delivered to the Train-2 of Dangote Fertiliser.
According to him, the agreement which will increase gas utilisation in the domestic market, will above other things increase local production of fertiliser in the country. “It will accommodate the government’s drive to ensure that we are self-sufficient in fertiliser production in our country,” he said.
In his response, Aliko Dangote, the chairman of Dangote Group, said the deal will not just make Nigeria self-sufficient but also a net exporter of fertiliser.
Dangote disclosed that Nigeria would earn about $1.8 billion in foreign exchange from increased fertiliser production.
