Energy

The Nigerian oil industry has stepped up efforts to reduce the flaring of gas in recent years, with private sector investments paying dividends. Cutting down on flaring, which is economically improvident and environmentally damaging, goes hand-in-hand with the development of infrastructure to process natural gas.

A large endowment of water has been both Nigeria’s blessing and its curse. A nationwide network of perennial and seasonal rivers, inland lakes, ponds and coastal lagoons allow for easy access to 267.3bn cu metres of surface water, complemented by over 51.9bn cu metres of groundwater resources, according to the Nigerian National Planning Commission....

In June 2009, when Nigeria’s late President Umaru Yar’Adua offered an amnesty to the gun-toting militants of the country’s main oil producing region, the Niger Delta, many pundits were sceptical. Happily, they have been proved wrong, at least so far.

Aspiring to join the ranks of the world’s top-20 economies by 2020, Nigeria’s growth trajectory is currently being impeded by one thing above all others: its small and dated electric power system. Government officials are aware of this, however, and solutions are high on the national “to-do” list, with some remedies already well in progress.

Commodities have played a key role in Africa’s growth narrative for centuries, most notably at the Berlin Conference of 1884, when Europe’s imperial powers sought to divide up a continent based in part upon its abundance of natural resources. In the intervening years, African countries have churned out everything from platinum in South Africa to...

As domestic migration and population growth increase the pressure on urban waste management infrastructure, Nigeria’s federal and state-level policymakers are increasingly turning towards the private sector to attract investment and management expertise.