KEY POINTS
- Nigeria plans to introduce hydrogen fuel to power industries and deepen renewable energy investment.
- Minister Abubakar Bagudu met global hydrogen bodies abroad to court partners and attract investment.
- Bagudu toured Madrid’s pioneering green hydrogen plant, Europe’s first municipal hydrogen bus refuelling station.
The Federal Government plans to introduce hydrogen fuel into Nigeria’s industrial base. It says the move will deepen renewable energy investment and spur fresh innovation.
Budget and Economic Planning Minister Abubakar Bagudu carried that message abroad over the weekend. He joined a high-level international dialogue on practical ways to deploy hydrogen at scale.
The talks pulled together policymakers, investors, standards bodies and project developers. They circled one hard question: how does hydrogen move from policy promise to real plants?
Hydrogen burns clean and can power heavy industry. Many governments now see it as a way to cut emissions without stalling growth.
Bagudu courts global partners
The minister did not go just to listen. He held side meetings with the International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation.
They discussed Nigeria’s renewable energy plans and where collaboration might begin. Bagudu pressed the case for investment and shared the country’s reform story. Both bodies run hydrogen programmes that Nigeria could tap.
The IHFCA organised the event. It is a non-profit body that spans the full hydrogen value chain, from research labs to industry groups. The association registered in July 2022. The China Association for Science and Technology supervises it, and its secretariat sits in Beijing.
A close look at Madrid’s model
Bagudu also toured EMT Madrid, a working blueprint for what Nigeria hopes to build. The plant and refuelling station cover nearly 50,000 square metres. It ranks as Europe’s first municipal hydrogen bus facility. The site handles the whole green hydrogen cycle: production, compression, storage and distribution.
The plant makes hydrogen by splitting water through electrolysis. A solar array of 2,780 panels powers the process, leaving the facility energy self-sufficient.
Its high-pressure dispensers refuel a city bus in under 10 minutes. Spanish engineering firms built the plant, with European Union funding behind it. That backing topped 17.2 million euros. Today the facility fuels 10 hydrogen buses that serve commuters across Madrid. The buses run on fuel made entirely on site.
Nigeria has already signalled wider ambition on this front. The country recently joined the Africa Green Hydrogen Alliance, a bloc pushing the continent towards clean fuel. Several African states now sit in that group. Madrid, to the government, offers proof that the technology works at the city scale. The challenge now is turning a foreign success into a Nigerian one.
