…As Afri-Exim Bank arranges $5bn for NNPC

By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja

The National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) has disclosed that about $30 billion is needed to meet Nigeria’s domestic energy needs.

NAPIMS is the corporate services unit charged with the management of upstream business of NNPC Limited.

The Group General Manager of NAPIMS, Bala Wunti who disclosed this while giving a keynote address at a session on financing and investment at the ongoing Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja, said Nigeria hopes to raise the funding through Direct Foreign Investment and through Domestic Direct Investment.

Wunti explained that the bulk of the investment would go into developing the nation’s vast gas reserve to boost economic growth through increased gas supply to industries and the power sector.

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He pointed out that presently the country was producing about 7.5 billion cubic feet of gas with about 5BCF monitised and 2.5BCF either re-injected or flared.

He pointed out that there is a huge investment opportunity in the gas sector, stressing that the domestic market needs about 3.5BCF with the NLNG requiring another 6BCF bringing the total requirement to about 10BF.

He added: “That is what we are saying: We have the gas. We are ready but what we need is cash, whether DBI or FDI. We need the combination of the two so we can move on. And when you give us the money we should do three things; support national development and growth by enabling economic development, industrialization, support generation of electricity and support foreign inflows”.

Also speaking, Mr. Eric Intong of Afrixim Bank disclosed that the bank was aware of the lack of financing by western financial institutions for hydrocarbon projects.

He said the bank was stepping in to bridge the funding gap having realized the huge energy need of countries in Africa and the important role hydrocarbons can play in meeting that need.

He said the bank has recently agreed a deal to provide $5 billion financing for the NNPC, saying deals like that were not just commercially driven but have developmental angles to it.