Nigeria’s improving macroeconomic outlook is beginning to reshape investor perceptions of its energy sector, offering fresh momentum for gas development and upstream investment, Executive Director of Good Governance Africa, Dr Diran Bello, has said.
Bello spoke in Lagos at Pitching Nigerian Gas to Global Capital: Bankable Approaches to High-Value Gas Projects, an event held under the License to Energy Series.
The forum also witnessed the announcement of a new Accelerator Programme by Capitas Partners and London-based Savannah Capital, aimed at improving the investment readiness of Nigerian marginal field operators and independent oil and gas producers seeking to attract foreign capital.
Placing Nigeria’s gas revival within a broader global and macroeconomic context, Bello said recent reforms, particularly in the foreign exchange market, have restored a degree of predictability that had been absent for much of the past decade.
“Nigeria’s economic outlook is more stable now than it has been in the past ten years. Recent policy reforms, necessary, even if painful, have restored clarity around the forex system. Volatility has given way to predictability, and that stability matters deeply for investors,” he said.
Bello argued that Nigeria’s gas opportunity extends beyond domestic policy improvements. He noted that a slowing global energy transition, combined with geopolitical disruptions to traditional oil and gas supply routes, has created a renewed strategic window for resource-rich countries like Nigeria.
According to him, energy markets are increasingly shaped by geopolitics, capital flows and security concerns, forcing producing countries to reposition themselves as reliable long-term suppliers in a more fragmented global order. He stressed that Nigeria must engage constructively with global superpowers and emerging middle powers alike without necessarily aligning with any single bloc to secure both capital and markets for its energy resources.
Bello said: “This moment requires strategic diplomacy as much as technical competence,” adding that Nigeria’s mineral endowment, if properly harnessed, could once again become a catalyst for economic transformation.
At the event, Founder and Managing Partner of Capitas Partners, Dr Abimbola Agboluaje, announced the launch of the Accelerator Programme in partnership with Savannah Capital.
He said the initiative is designed to address a longstanding challenge facing Nigerian independents: the difficulty of translating promising licences and assets into bankable projects that can attract long-term financing.
He described the partnership with Savannah Capital as strategic, noting that the firm is led by African investment banking and trade finance specialists with deep experience in the City of London. According to him, this combination enables frank engagement with Nigerian operators on corporate governance, transparency, and project structuring areas that are often critical to investor confidence.
“They understand what global capital is looking for, and because Savannah Capital is African-led, it becomes easier to have the honest conversations required to get oil and gas companies to a stage where investors are comfortable funding their projects,” he said.
Regulatory authorities also highlighted recent policy improvements aimed at unlocking gas investment.
Executive Secretary and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Felix Omatsola Ogbe, represented by General Manager, Commercial Ventures, Ejiro Dortie, said a significantly improved regulatory environment is encouraging renewed interest in gas monetisation.
Dortie cited the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) and OB3 gas pipelines as critical infrastructure projects underway, adding that the NCDMB is working to ensure strong Nigerian participation in their delivery.
He also disclosed that the board, through the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF), provides single-digit, long-tenor financing of up to $10 million per borrower, administered through the Bank of Industry and the Nigerian Export-Import Bank.
According to him, the fund has supported gas cylinder manufacturing, storage and distribution infrastructure, in line with the Federal Government’s drive to expand domestic gas adoption for cooking and household energy use.
Similarly, Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Gbenga Komolafe, represented by Jennis Anyanwu, Deputy Director, Gas Production and Utilisation, said Nigeria has over 50 trillion cubic feet of gas available for monetisation.
Komolafe said the Commission is building a regulatory framework to support the Tinubu administration’s ambition to use gas as a driver of industrialisation and export growth. He disclosed that the NUPRC has issued 19 primary gas-related regulations aimed at reducing barriers to production and providing clarity for investors.
“Some of these regulations are designed to balance gas exports with domestic gas delivery, in line to catalyse industrialisation through gas,” he said.
