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Bitcoins …IOCs not leaving Nigeria, says Lokpobri
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday, said the current Tax reform policies will attract both local and international investors.
He said the Reforms are fashioned to simplify the country’s tax regulations, offer incentives, and ensure a more transparent and predictable fiscal framework.
He added that the Reforms are tailored to phasing out barriers to entry and supporting business growth in the country.
Tinubu spoke at the 2025 Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja.
The minister of state for finance, Dr. Doris Aniete, who represented him said,
“As many of you are aware, we are currently implementing a series of comprehensive reforms in our fiscal and tax policies.
“These reforms are designed to create a more business-friendly environment and attract both local and international investments by simplifying our tax regulations, offering incentives, and ensuring a more transparent and predictable fiscal framework, we aim to remove barriers to entry and support the growth of Businesses in Nigeria.
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“These measures will not only make it easier for companies to invest and operate in our country, but also stimulate economic development, create jobs, and enhance overall prosperity for our nation.”
The theme of the summit is “Bridging Continents: Connecting Investors Worldwide With Africa’s Energy Potential.”
He said the investment landscape in Nigeria’s energy sector is brimming with opportunities driven by a favorite regulatory environment and strategic initiatives aimed at attracting all kinds of investors.
Highlighting the investment opportunities, in the country’s oil and gas exploration, he said Nigeria offers creative opportunities for investors to explore and develop new oil blocks.
Tinubu said: “Our commitment to improving security in oil and gas producing regions and streamlining regulatory processes has created a conducive environment for investment two in the area of renewable energy, our commitment to diversifying our energy mix possesses significant opportunities in the renewable energy sector.”
According to him, investors can explore solar energy projects, given Nigeria’s abundant solar resources, as well as wind and hydropower projects.
He said the government’s decade of gas initiative further emphasizes the strategic importance of natural gas as a transition for offering opportunities in gas production and infrastructure development, three in domestic refining and petrochemical development.
He said the revival of domestic refineries and establishment of new petrochemical plants present opportunities for investors to participate in value-added processing and production with the coming on-stream of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), two refineries, the country is going to have more refining capacity to produce, to process food and also deliver these products at the cheaper cost to Nigerians.
He assured the stakeholders that the government will keep removing the bottlenecks and red tape that block investments.
He revealed: “We are seeing more investment flow through the creation of enabling environments and regulations and the policies to support your investment flow.”
He said the government is making efforts to expand power generation and improve transmission infrastructure offering investment opportunities in both conventional and renewable energy sources.
He added that the government’s focus on increasing the short-term renewable energy in the energy mix aligns with global trends and presents a sustainable investment opportunity.
On hydrogen, Tinubu said, “Here in Nigeria, we are actively developing a hydrogen policy to attract investors, and it is great hydrogen in our energy mix, we have unveiled a hydrogen development agenda committed to creating a unified national hydrogen policy.”
He explained that the policy aims to harness the potential of both blue and green hydrogen, leveraging other natural resources and strategic geographic position.
He encouraged the stakeholders to be a part of Nigeria’s hydrogen journey, and other critical energy minerals.
Continuing, he said “Finally, this is a key sector to the economic growth of our nation, and we are committed to its rapid development. Our large deposits of copper, lithium nickel cobalt, and rare earthy neurons, which are all very critical for clean energy technologies, present investors with significant investment opportunities.
“We will also build local refining capacities for these resources to ensure more value addition and more revenue to the country.”
Giving the oil industry address, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri said the International Oil Companies (IOCs) are not leaving Nigeria.
He said the companies are only migrating to deep water offshore operations, stressing that they have no alternative to Nigeria.
“Nigeria is an investment destination. No IOC is leaving Nigeria. All the IOCs cannot find a better destination than Nigeria. They confirmed to me they are not leaving Nigeria and that the worst is they are leaving for the deep offshore.”
He said already out of the four Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) taken in the African oil and gas industry, three were in Nigeria.
He noted that $20 billion in investments is on the way to Nigeria soon.
Lokpobiri announced that the African Energy Bank with its headquarters in Nigeria will begin operations in the first quarter of 2025.
He recalled how he was in Davos in January this year and he was told there was loan for oil and gas was available but he turned down the offer and told them Nigeria prefers investment to loan at the moment.
He attributed all the progress in the sector to the Executive Order from Tinubu last year.
He urged the stakeholders to ignore the campaign about the energy transition, stressing there must be energy security before the energy transition.
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