Vice President Kashim Shettima has called for a partnership with the World Economic Forum to advance the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline project, which aims to connect Nigeria to Morocco and other African countries.
Speaking during a bilateral meeting with WEF President Mr Børge Brende on the sidelines of the WEF annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Shettima emphasised the strategic importance of the pipeline. The project seeks to transport natural gas from Nigeria to North Africa and Europe, bolstering energy security and economic growth in the region.
“We seek your collaboration in fundamental areas. One is on the African Atlantic Gas Pipeline which will connect Nigeria to Morocco and other African countries,” Shettima said. “The pipeline will transport natural gas from Nigeria to North Africa and Europe and is expected to improve energy security and economic growth in the region.”
The vice-president highlighted that the pipeline project would allow West African littoral states to integrate their gas supplies, feeding them to other end users. He also noted plans to explore undersea passages for the pipeline to ensure a mutually beneficial arrangement.
“With the geopolitical challenges in Europe from Russian gas problems and the rising demand for energy because of artificial intelligence, data mining, and storage, we will be in a vantage position to take advantage of this opportunity,” Shettima stated.
He further underscored Nigeria’s potential as a gas nation, stressing the importance of maximising opportunities to drive economic growth for the country’s expanding population.
“Nigeria is a gas nation than an oil nation. Because of our population, we either take care of the young men and women—our average age is 16.9—or they take care of us in the next 10 or 20 years down the line. This is why we are in a hurry to develop in our enlightened self-interest. Gas provides us with the utmost opportunity to generate wealth for our people,” he said.
Shettima also called for WEF’s collaboration in recharging Lake Chad to combat global food security challenges and other existential threats.
“There is an incestuous relationship between economy and ecology in the Sahelian region. The challenges of Boko Haram and ISWAP might not be disconnected from the realities of existential threats we are facing,” he noted.
Shettima explained that Lake Chad, which once spanned 25,000 square kilometres, has shrunk to 2,000 square kilometres, exacerbating ecological and economic difficulties.
“There is the issue of the recharging of the Lake Chad from the Congo River basin, which is the second-largest river basin in the world, and the water is flowing into the Atlantic. We want to use your platform to recharge the Lake Chad. This will help us to successfully generate clean energy and a significant amount of hydropower annually,” he said.
The proposed canal of 2,400 kilometres would transform the agricultural landscape of the sub-region and address the ongoing global food security crisis.
Shettima also briefed Mr Brende on the reform efforts of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, highlighting policy changes such as subsidy removal, exchange rate alignment, and tax reforms.
“Most importantly, we are talking about the present. My leader and my boss, President Bola Tinubu, is someone who also grew up in the finance ecosystem. He was a financial controller for ExxonMobil; he was a transformative leader in Lagos State and, in Nigeria, he is the most disruptive leader we have had in half a century,” Shettima stated.
He added, “Our economy has turned the corner, we have crossed the Rubicon and we’re now on the path to sustained economic growth.”
Shettima invited the WEF president to visit Nigeria and meet with President Tinubu, while expressing the country’s readiness to host WEF Africa. He noted that Nigeria, apart from being the largest economy in Africa, is also the continent’s most populous nation with 250 million people.
