Power
A former Minister of Power and Chairman of Geometric Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, has blamed Nigeria’s persistent electricity crisis on inadequate gas infrastructure, saying that the country cannot achieve reliable power supply without sustained investment in gas production and transportation.
Speaking in Enugu after a symposium marking his 70th birthday, Nnaji said that Nigeria possessed abundant gas reserves, but had failed to develop the infrastructure required to move the resource to the power plants.
“If we have gas we have reliable electricity. No gas, no reliable electricity,” he said.
According to him, while Nigeria is regarded as more of a gas nation than an oil nation, much of its current gas production come from associated gas, while vast non-associated gas reserves remain largely untapped.
He identified two critical gaps requiring government intervention: investment in gas production and investment in transportation infrastructure.
“The government has not done enough or nearly enough to transport the gas,” he said, stressing that gas pipelines remained the missing link in the electricity value chain.
Nnaji noted that Geometric Power constructed its own 27-kilometre gas pipeline from Owaza in Abia State to its Osisioma power plant because public infrastructure was unavailable.
He described the project as the first privately owned gas pipeline built by a Nigerian power generation company.
The former minister also said that key components of Nigeria’s Gas Master Plan, including trunk pipelines linking the South-South, South-East and northern parts of the country, remain incomplete.
According to him, while the Federal Government’s domestic gas pricing policy has helped power producers, pricing alone cannot solve the problem if gas cannot reach generating plants.
“It helps. But you have to have that gas first,” he said.
A.I
July 23, 2026
Tags: Prof. Bart Nnaji