El-Rufai to head Nigeria’s new Ministry of Energy

Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State will head up the new Ministry of Energy that President Bola Tinubu has proposed, BusinessDay has gathered.

The creation of a new ministry for energy and power to manage the country’s vast gas resources seeks to solve the perennial problem of lack of gas to run plants and remove control of gas supply and pricing, something industry operators have clamoured for long.

The new ministry will be tasked with removing constraints to gas supply by establishing a complementary and flawlessly interconnected framework for electricity and natural gas giving the electricity sector regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) purview of the energy, not just electricity, industry.

With the creation of a new ministry for energy and appointing a swashbuckling reformer to head it, the Federal Government is signaling its intention to turn the focus away from oil, bringing together gas and power to deepen industralisation and grow petrochemicals, experts say

Nasir El-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State will head up the new Ministry of Energy focused on the larger strategic goal of using the Electricity Act 2023 to bring Federal and State government capacities to widen energy access for Nigerians.

BusinessDay gathered that El-Rufai has lined up a broad team of experts comprising local and international consultants and experts to develop a strategy for the new ministry.

In an earlier story, this paper reported that the government was considering excising gas from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. The proposed appointment of El-Rufai, with a track record as a strong-willed reformer, to head the ministry, signals Tinubu’s intention for deep changes.

Isaac Anyaogu

Isaac Anyaogu is an Assistant editor and head of the energy and environment desk. He is an award-winning journalist who has written hundreds of reports on Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, energy and environmental policies, regulation and climate change impacts in Africa. He was part of a journalist team that investigated lead acid pollution by an Indian recycler in Nigeria and won the international prize - Fetisov Journalism award in 2020. Mr Anyaogu joined BusinessDay in January 2016 as a multimedia content producer on the energy desk and rose to head the desk in October 2020 after several ground breaking stories and multiple award wining stories. His reporting covers start-ups, companies and markets, financing and regulatory policies in the power sector, oil and gas, renewable energy and environmental sectors He has covered the Niger Delta crises, and corruption in NIgeria’s petroleum product imports. He left the Audit and Consulting firm, OR&C Consultants in 2015 after three years to write for BusinessDay and his background working with financial statements, audit reports and tax consulting assignments significantly benefited his reporting. Mr Anyaogu studied mass communications and Media Studies and has attended several training programmes in Ghana, South Africa and the United States

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