Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe has said about 600 million Africans still without access to electricity could make the continent’s energy deficit a growing global security concern, warning that Africa’s vast resources and rapidly rising energy demand would increasingly shape global energy geopolitics.

Tegbe said Africa could no longer be treated as a peripheral player in the global energy conversation, pointing to the continent’s mineral resources, solar potential, youthful population and expanding energy demand as factors that would influence energy security in London, Tokyo, Washington and Dubai.

At the opening plenary of the 50th edition of the Middle East Energy 2026 Leadership Summit in Dubai, on Tuesday, Tegbe said Africa’s energy deficit had become a global security concern, with about 600 million people on the continent still without access to electricity amid rising energy demand and intensifying geopolitical competition.

Tegbe said Africa’s vast mineral resources, solar potential, youthful population and rapidly growing energy demand would increasingly shape global energy security, insisting that the continent could no longer be treated as a peripheral player in global energy geopolitics.

He spoke at the opening plenary of the 50th edition of the Middle East Energy 2026 Leadership Summit in Dubai, where he delivered a keynote address on “Energy Security and the Effect of Geopolitics.”

The minister said the scale of Africa’s energy deficit, alongside its resource base and expanding demand, would have implications for energy security in major global centres, including London, Tokyo, Washington and Dubai.

According to him, energy security in 2026 could no longer be defined by hydrocarbon reserves alone, but by the resilience of the entire energy system, including critical mineral supply chains, grid infrastructure, capital and institutions required to keep energy flowing to homes, hospitals and industries during periods of stress.

Tegbe positioned Nigeria’s energy resources and power sector reforms within the changing global energy landscape, citing the country’s more than 200 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves and its two-decade record of reliable LNG supply to Europe and Asia.

He described the Electricity Act 2023 as the most far-reaching reform of Nigeria’s power sector in a generation, noting that it ended the longstanding federal monopoly and effectively created 37 emerging electricity markets across the federation under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The minister said attracting the capital required to develop the emerging electricity markets would depend on regulatory certainty, contract sanctity and bankable offtake arrangements.

“Capital does not flee risk; it flees uncertainty. Investors will price risk all day long; what they cannot price is a rule that changes after the contract is signed,” he said.

Tegbe said Nigeria’s reform agenda was, at its core, a credibility agenda built on regulatory certainty, contract sanctity and bankable offtake.

He outlined four propositions for delegates at the summit, arguing that diversification, rather than diplomatic disengagement, was the surest form of strategic insurance, while electricity grids should receive the same strategic attention historically reserved for fuel supplies.

He also identified affordability as a security issue and called for an orderly and just global energy transition that responds to the circumstances of individual nations.

Tegbe urged global partners to move beyond the extraction of Africa’s raw resources to investments in local processing, manufacturing, skills transfer and patient capital.

He said such partnerships would allow African countries to derive greater value from their resources while contributing more meaningfully to global energy security.

“Nigeria has chosen to build. Africa has chosen to build. And we invite you, in the spirit of this remarkable city and this landmark fiftieth summit, to build with us,” the minister said.