At WEF, Okunbo Says Africa’s Energy Transition Risk Not Overwhelming

The Executive Director of Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), Osahon Okunbo, has challenged prevailing assumptions about Africa’s energy transition, arguing that the continent’s real problem is not excessive risk but a persistent misreading of where risk truly lies.

Speaking at Nigeria House during a panel session titled, ‘Powering Africa’s Next Growth Cycle: Gas, Renewables, Capital and Entrepreneurs in a Pragmatic Energy Transition’, at the just-concluded 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Okunbo said Africa’s energy debate has been dominated by exaggerated concerns over political instability, security and financing, often obscuring practical pathways to scale energy access and industrial growth.

According to him, global capital has not vanished from Africa’s energy space, despite increased climate-related pressures on oil and gas financing. Instead, it has shifted, he argued.

While international financiers have grown more cautious, indigenous investors, family offices and long-term local institutions are increasingly stepping in with patient capital for projects of national importance.

“There is capital in Africa and in Nigeria for these projects,” Okunbo said. “What has changed is who is willing to deploy it and for how long,” he added.

He cited major gas infrastructure such as the Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) pipeline as an example of how long-gestation investments can unlock domestic energy supply, industrialisation and economic resilience when backed by committed local capital.

Okunbo also pushed back against the widespread perception that security concerns make large-scale infrastructure unviable in Nigeria. Drawing from PINL’s experience operating the 500-kilometre Trans-Niger Pipeline across multiple Niger Delta communities, he argued that security risks are often overstated.

“If security risks were as extreme as often portrayed, linear infrastructure of that scale simply would not exist,” he added, noting that improved uptime has been achieved through community inclusion, sustained engagement, and maintenance rather than heavy militarisation.

He stressed that inclusion, not force, delivers durable security, adding that recent economic reforms such as fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification signal growing macroeconomic stability and policy seriousness.

However, Okunbo warned that while some risks are exaggerated, others are routinely ignored — particularly the failure to plan for long-term maintenance. He noted that decades of infrastructure decay across Africa stemmed from a model that prioritised construction over lifecycle management.

“For too long, funding stopped at commissioning,” he said, explaining that indigenous operators remain accountable long after projects are delivered, making maintenance and asset integrity central to execution.

On energy transition, Okunbo rejected a binary framing between fossil fuels and renewables, instead advocating a systems-based approach that pragmatically sequences gas, renewables, storage and grid modernisation.

Africa’s transition, he concluded, will be driven by realism rather than ideology, anchored on three essentials: patient capital, indigenous execution capacity and clear, consistent regulatory frameworks.