FG secures $10bn investments, requires $38bn for 2030 targets
By Precious Mark
The Federal Government has attracted over $10 billion in long-awaited Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) and recorded an operational surge of 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) in crude oil and condensate production following aggressive regulatory and fiscal interventions.
The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen disclosed this on Tuesday during her special address at the 25th annual NOG Energy Week in Abuja.
Speaking, she warned that Nigeria still faces a critical financing gap of approximately $38 billion to sustain its current energy base and meet its 2030 production targets.
According to her, this massive funding gap cannot be closed by the government alone. Consequently, the Bola Tinubu administration has shifted away from rhetoric to enforcing regulatory predictability in a bid to make the country bankable.
She emphasized that capital is no longer sentimental and cannot be moved by speeches, slogans, or sympathy.
Instead, she noted that the global competition is no longer geology against geology, but rather government against government, rules against rules, and delivery against delivery.
To attract international capital, Verheijen stated that the government eliminated decades of delayed reforms, cut contracting timelines, and streamlined regulatory oversight.
These interventions have pushed onshore oil production to its strongest level in nearly 20 years, while external reserves have crossed the $50 billion mark.
She noted that Nigeria is no longer asking to be trusted but is actively working to be bankable, adding that the country is targeting 3 million barrels of oil per day and 10 billion cubic feet of gas per day.
She maintained that these milestones serve as clear signals that when regulatory rules improve, capital moves.
On power infrastructure, she outlined the Presidential Power Sector Financial Reforms Programme, describing it as a ₦4 trillion market liquidity intervention designed to clear legacy debts and restore payment discipline across power generation companies (Gencos), gas suppliers, and lenders.
Regarding domestic gas, Verheijen admitted that recent Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) price spikes have heavily pressured households.
She stressed that a gas-rich nation cannot be comfortable watching families get priced back to using firewood, charcoal, or kerosene.
To address this challenge, she explained that the VAT Modification Order of 2024 zero-rated LPG and all distribution hardware, including cylinders and conversion kits.
She also revealed that her office has issued duty exemption certificates worth $93 million for LPG infrastructure, with $30 million approved this year alone.
She observed that indigenous firms like Seplat, Oando, and Renaissance now control between 69% and 83% of local gas and upstream assets.
However, she cautioned that local content must create value rather than inflation, warning that every unnecessary debate acts as an export subsidy to another country, and every unclear approval serves as a tax on national ambition.
Citing the 650,000 bpd Dangote Refinery, she stated that African industrial scale is no longer merely aspirational.
Verheijen concluded that the age of Nigerian hesitation is ending as the country enters the age of Nigerian ambition, noting that the primary task ahead is to turn reform into relief, capital into projects, projects into jobs, and energy into national greatness.