With 38% of all major project sanctions on the continent during the past 24 months, Nigeria has formally restored its place as Sub-Saharan Africa's top energy capital destination. The nation received $5.3 billion in upstream capital investment in 2025 alone, according to an update released on Thursday via X by Olu Verheijen, Special Advisor to the President on Energy. According to her, this increase indicates a decoupling development trajectory for Nigeria's energy industry, despite a 18% general decline in upstream spending throughout the Sub-Saharan region.
Nigeria has demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy. Verheijen said, "We went from deadlock to greenlight, and investors responded," adding that the nation now provides the best gas terms in Africa.
The Shell–Sunlink HI Field (OML 144), a shallow-water non-associated gas project that gained FID in 2025, is essential to this success, Verheijen continued.
The Non-Associated Gas (NAG) incentives implemented in 2024 made this project commercially feasible and provided essential feedstock for the Nigeria LNG (NLNG) project.
"Our task was to design a system that empowers Nigerian talent and enables indigenous enterprise while eliminating rent-seeking," she continued.
Nigeria failed to stay competitive between 2015 and 2023, obtaining only 4% of sanctioned African FIDs with just six projects totaling $5 billion over a period of over nine years. However, the nation has successfully secured 38% of the continent's large projects in just the last two years (2024–2025), drawing a staggering $8 billion in capital through five high-impact project sanctions.
Nigeria is now in the top quartile of international jurisdictions for investment competitiveness because of the administration's "Data-Driven" benchmarking. The presidency anticipates that this momentum will continue into 2026 as the Bonga North and Ubeta gas ventures continue to progress.
"We need to boost local content as a catalyst for efficient and timely project delivery as Nigeria enters a new cycle of upstream investment.
Verheijen came to the conclusion that regulators need to abandon outdated perspectives and become facilitators of efficiency, clarity, and speed.