Nigeria will require an estimated $410 billion in additional investment by 2060 to achieve its net-zero emissions pathway, Vice-President Kashim Shettima has said.
Shettima disclosed this on Tuesday at the second edition of the Decarbonising Infrastructure in Nigeria (DIN) Summit held at the United Nations House in Abuja.
The summit was organised by the Office of the Vice-President in partnership with the National Council on Climate Change and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
It was themed, ‘De-risking Green Infrastructure Investment in Nigeria: Enabling Policy, Project Readiness and Risk-Sharing Solutions’.
Represented by his Deputy Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Hadejia, the Vice-President said the huge financing requirement should be viewed not only as a challenge but also as an opportunity for investors.
“Our energy transition plan estimates that Nigeria will require about $410 billion in additional investment above business-as-usual through 2060 to achieve our net-zero pathway,” Shettima said.
“That is a significant financing requirement. But it also tells us something else: there is a very large investment opportunity ahead of us.”
Shettima said the Federal Government lacked the resources to finance the entire transition alone, stressing that private investors and financial institutions would be critical to achieving the target.
“We need the private sector. We need development finance institutions. We need domestic financial institutions and institutional investors. And, perhaps most importantly, we need projects that are properly prepared and capable of attracting that capital,” he said.
He said the major challenge was no longer the absence of climate policies, but the conversion of those policies into viable projects capable of attracting financing.
According to him, investors require policy certainty, credible revenue models, adequate technical preparation and clear risk-allocation frameworks before committing funds to green infrastructure projects.
“These are practical questions. And I believe that is where DIN Summit 2.0 can make a useful contribution,” he said.
The Vice-President said Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution 3.0 was designed to strengthen the pipeline of investment-ready projects, expand private-sector participation and improve access to climate finance.
$27.2bn annual financing shortfall
The UNIDO Sub-Regional Representative in Nigeria and ECOWAS, Philbert Johnson, said Nigeria’s infrastructure investment requirement could reach about $3 trillion by 2050.
Johnson said climate finance flowing into the country averaged $2.5 billion annually in 2021 and 2022, against an estimated annual requirement of $29.7 billion.
He put the resulting annual financing shortfall at approximately $27.2 billion.
Johnson said several factors continued to discourage investors, including regulatory uncertainty, fragmented approval processes, unclear institutional responsibilities and the absence of clearly defined revenue and offtake arrangements.
“These projects sit at very different stages of maturity, from concepts which require feasibility work to projects ready to seek finance,” he said.
He called for the full operationalisation of the Climate Change Act and stronger protection of power purchase agreements, saying both were important to attracting carbon finance.
Johnson said UNIDO would support the development of bankable projects through its Computer Model for Feasibility Analysis and Reporting (COMFAR) software and Digital Investment Promotion platform.
According to him, the tools are currently used by more than 11,000 practitioners across 160 countries.
Onne Port to become first green port
The Personal Assistant to the President on Subnational Infrastructure, Musaddiq Adamu, said the DIN initiative was established to bridge the gap between green infrastructure concepts and actual investment.
He said the initiative had held pre-summit workshops covering energy, transport, urban development and agriculture.
Adamu recalled that the maiden edition attracted more than 400 stakeholders and produced a green infrastructure investment pipeline as well as a policy communiqué.
He said one of the outcomes of the initiative was progress towards electrifying port operations.
According to him, discussions following a presentation by APM Terminals at the 2025 summit contributed to a $60 million agreement with the Nigerian Ports Authority.
He said the development was also supporting plans to position Onne Port as Nigeria’s first green port.
“For me, that is an important lesson. The objective is not simply to have a good conversation. The goal is to create real investment opportunity,” Adamu said.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the National Council on Climate Change, Tenioye Majekodunmi, said green infrastructure development could generate more than 300,000 jobs.
The summit focused on strengthening policies, preparing bankable projects and developing risk-sharing mechanisms capable of attracting the private capital needed to support Nigeria’s long-term transition to a low-carbon economy.
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