Nigeria’s gas distributors demand execution over talk as domestic utilisation lags

The Association of Local Distributors of Gas has called on policymakers, investors, regulators, and operators to stop debating the country’s resource wealth and start delivering it to homes and businesses, a rebuke of the chronic gap between Africa’s largest proven gas reserves and one of its most underserved domestic energy markets.

The demand came at the second edition of the ALDG Business Forum, convened June 4 at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund building in Abuja. The gathering drew government officials, development finance institutions, technology providers, and industry operators under a theme that captured the sector’s frustration: “From Gas Abundance to Gas Access: Reassessing Nigeria’s Gas Distribution Imperatives.”

Nigeria sits atop roughly 215 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves — more than any other country on the continent. Yet widespread energy poverty persists, pipeline networks remain underdeveloped, and domestic utilisation has failed to keep pace with the scale of the resource. The contradiction has become a defining tension in the country’s energy policy.

“Nigeria cannot afford to remain a footnote in its own gas story,” said Kehinde Alabi, chairman of the association. “We have the reserves, we have the policy frameworks, and increasingly we have the investor appetite. What we need now is ruthless execution from the wellhead to the household.”

The forum’s participants converged on several pressure points. Chief among them: the absence of long-term policy consistency and regulatory certainty, which stakeholders said continues to deter the scale of private investment the sector requires. Without predictable rules, long-horizon capital will keep looking elsewhere.

Infrastructure gaps drew equally sharp attention. Delegates pressed for faster development of pipeline networks, gas storage facilities, and downstream distribution systems capable of reaching industrial customers, commercial users, and households in underserved regions. Several participants pointed to gas aggregation hubs and scalable distribution models as near-term mechanisms to broaden market reach and improve efficiency.

Development finance institutions came in for particular scrutiny. Forum participants argued that DFIs must do more to provide affordable, long-term, naira-denominated financing — instruments designed to absorb the currency and project-development risks that currently make private lenders hesitant to commit capital to gas infrastructure at scale.

Irene Ikenma, director of midstream and downstream gas at the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, representing Minister of State Ekperikpe Ekpo, acknowledged the investment challenge directly. “The commercial fundamentals for gas distribution in Nigeria are compelling, but the investment will only flow at the scale we need when we have regulatory certainty and infrastructure that can underpin long-term returns,” she said. “Industry and government must work in lockstep.”

The National Assembly signalled it is prepared to act. Aluko Ahmed Yinka, deputy chairman of the House Committee on Gas, representing committee chairman Nicholas Mutu, pledged legislative support for reforms aimed at removing investment barriers. “We are not here merely as observers — we are here as partners in reform,” he said, committing the committee to oversight mechanisms that hold stakeholders accountable for hitting distribution targets.

The ALDG forum, now in its second year, has positioned itself as an annual accountability checkpoint for Nigeria’s gas distribution ecosystem — a space where the distance between policy ambition and on-the-ground delivery gets measured in plain terms.