By Iyoho Emmanuel
ABUJA — Nigeria must urgently build and sustain investors’ confidence in its economic and policy environment if the country is to attract the capital required to achieve its renewable energy and climate-transition ambitions, a climate finance expert has said.
Executive Director of Energy Transition Africa, Vincent Egoro, stated this in an interview with Journalists after participating as a panelist at the Sustainable Energy Summit 2026 in Abuja.
The summit was themed, “Financing Nigeria’s Energy Future: Closing the Gap Between Policy Commitment and Investment.”
Egoro said the major challenge facing Nigeria’s renewable energy sector was not a shortage of capital, but the difficulty of presenting projects that investors consider sufficiently “bankable.”
“Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan targets net-zero emissions by 2060. We have enormous opportunities in solar energy, lithium and other critical minerals,” he said. “But the issue is just that the project pipelines that we are presenting for funding are considered to not be bankable.”
According to him, describing a project as “not bankable” does not mean it cannot be implemented, rather it reflects investors’ concerns about risks in the operating environment and their confidence in recovering investments and repatriating profits.
He explained that international investors were particularly concerned about their ability to recover capital, make reasonable returns, and repatriate profits within the lifespan of their investments.
Egoro urged the Federal Government to intensify efforts to build investors’ confidence and create a stable policy environment capable of attracting long-term capital into the renewable energy and climate sectors.
He warned against policy reversals whenever there was a change of administration, saying frequent policy changes could discourage investors who require stability and predictability before committing large sums.
“As we approach another election cycle, the confidence already built among investors should be protected,” he said. “We need continuity in government policies.”
The expert cited the activities of the Rural Electrification Agency( REA), as an example of an institution that had demonstrated the capacity to attract and utilise funding for renewable energy projects.
He called on other government agencies working in climate change, renewable energy and related sectors to learn from the agency’s experience in attracting and deploying development finance.
Egoro also called for greater coordination among government ministries, departments and agencies responsible for power, education, agriculture, environment and other sectors.
“Fragmented approaches can undermine efforts to address Nigeria’s energy and climate challenges,” he said. “Government agencies must communicate and work together more effectively instead of operating independently.”
On currency risk, he acknowledged it remained one of the concerns considered by foreign investors but noted that recent relative stability in the naira could provide some encouragement to prospective investors.
He urged international investors not to overlook the opportunities available in Nigeria because of perceived risks, arguing that the country could offer competitive returns for well-structured investments.
Egoro commended the organisers of the summit for bringing together government officials, private-sector representatives, civil society organisations and academics to discuss Nigeria’s development challenges.
He said such multi-stakeholder engagements were important because civil society organisations could no longer afford to limit their conversations to themselves.
“Bringing policymakers, businesses, civil society and academia to the same platform creates an opportunity for a more holistic understanding of Nigeria’s problems and the development of practical solutions,” he added.
He urged the organisers to sustain the initiative and continue drawing attention to critical issues that require coordinated national action.