KEY POINTS
- Nigeria requires at least 100 gigawatts of electricity to achieve real industrial growth.
- A new $40 billion green finance platform targets 20 gigawatts of new capacity over 10 years.
- Developers cite fragmented approvals, not funding scarcity, as the sector’s biggest bottleneck.
Nigeria needs 100 gigawatts of electricity to become a serious industrial nation. That was the message in Lagos this week at the launch of the Green Finance and Investment Facility. The new platform aims to pull private capital into renewable energy projects and widen electricity access across the country.
Anthony Feyitimi, senior partner at Barton Heyman, was direct. The sector’s real problem is not money.
“The problem is not necessarily the absence of funding. There is money everywhere, but the challenge is getting the money to the projects,” he said.
Developers get caught in an approval loop. Different institutions demand separate documentation at each stage. Timelines stretch. Momentum dies before projects reach financial close. The new platform brings key institutions under one coordinated system to break that cycle.
A $40 billion bet on 20 gigawatts
The facility targets $40 billion in investment and 20 gigawatts of new electricity capacity over 10 years. Feyitimi was careful to frame that number. Twenty gigawatts is a starting point, not a destination.
“The 20 gigawatts we are talking about now is only a pilot phase,” he said.
He pointed to India as the benchmark. India has crossed 100 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity. Nigeria has a comparable population and similar energy needs. Feyitimi argued there is no structural reason Nigeria cannot follow the same path.
From talk to delivery
Titilayo Oshodi, Lagos State Special Adviser on Climate Change and Circular Economy, said the launch marks a long-overdue shift. The sector is finally moving from conversation to execution.
“What we are witnessing here today is not just the launch of a financing platform, it is the activation of a system designed to deliver impact at scale,” she said.
She linked the electricity deficit to economic exclusion. Millions of Nigerians lack opportunity because reliable power has never reached them. Structured, patient capital, she argued, is the missing link between Nigeria’s clean energy goals and actual ground-level delivery.
