Nigeria sovereign fund to invest $500 million in energy transition programme

By Camillus Eboh

ABUJA, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s sovereign wealth fund has launched a $500 million renewable investment venture aimed at accelerating the country’s energy transition, it said on Monday.

The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) said the venture will focus on developing, investing in, and operating renewable energy projects.

A pilot for the Renewables Investment Platform for Limitless Energy (RIPLE) project will be located within the Tokarawa industrial hub in the northern Kano state.

It will establish a generation and distribution system to supply 70 megawatts of electricity to industrial, commercial, and residential customers in an area covering about 9,000 connections, the NSIA said.

Nigeria predominantly burns gas to produce electricity. It is seeking to increase the supply of renewable electricity from 13% of total generation in 2015 to 23% in 2025 and 36% by 2030.

The NSIA said that the launch of RIPLE would be followed by a partnership agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank Group to “further redefine Nigeria’s energy landscape”, although it did not give further details.

The NSIA and Vitol launched a similar venture in April to invest in a range of carbon avoidance and removal projects in Africa’s most populous nation.

(Writing by Elisha Bala-Gbogbo; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)