THE ENERGY MARKET IN NIGERIA AND BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

 

 

 

Finland has recognized Nigeria since 7 October 1960 and established diplomatic relations with the country in 1963 and this relation still exists. The two countries‟ representatives have met a couple of times to discuss how these relations could be further strengthened as to increase their bilateral cooperation. Since inception of the new democratic government in Nigeria, Nigerian representatives have visited the Finnish government twice, President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004 and the recent visit by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan with other important dignitaries in 2009 to discuss how the Finland-Nigeria relationship could be improved on the basis of exchange of ideas which will better improve the two countries‟ economies. Also, according to the Finnish President website “President Halonen met with President Umaru Yar'Adua on the first day of the official visit, Monday, 9 March 2009 in Abuja. President Halonen and President Yar'Adua discussed bilateral relations between Finland and Nigeria and especially Finnish clean technology expertise which Nigeria could benefit from. President Halonen noted that there is great interest in Nigeria in environmentally friendly technology and sustainable development.

 

In the area of energy development, Nigeria is still lagging behind and without energy, there would be no development industrially and infrastructure wise in the country. Nigeria has been exploring and exploiting its crude oil since 1956 but until today the nation is still struggling with insufficient supply of energy to the citizenry as well as all other sectors of the country where energy is needed. It is not as if the nation is not endowed with enough energy resources, but the problem still lies on the nation‟s incapability to efficiently and effectively utilize its energy resources to have constant and sustainable supply of energy to the consumers.

 

According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria is ranked 7th in the world in the reserves of natural gas but the country is still unable to convert the resource for its energy supply. This is the reason why the bilateral agreement between Finland and Nigeria would be of help in exchange of advanced technologies that could assist the country in the proper use of energy resources. Nigeria needs the likes of Neste Oil, Wärtsilä and other energy sourcing companies in Finland for exchange of technologies and development of ideas for growth and sustainable development of Nigeria‟s economy now and in the future (The Baker Institute Energy Forum USA 2006, 8).

 

Nigeria is an energy resource rich country blessed with fossil resources such as crude oil, natural gas, coal and renewable energy resources like solar, wind and biogas but still the country‟s industries are in shamble condition and almost all of them are at the stage of their final collapse. The energy supply to the companies and industries are not sufficient enough and many of them who could afford to buy energy from private sources spend a lot of money to acquire them and this has brought many problems for the companies and businesses in the long run. For instance, since 1995 about 150 multinational companies of which include: Michelin, Dunlop, Pfizer, Aventis, GlaxoWellcome and SmithKline Beecham (now merged as GlaxoSmithKline), Hoechst and P&G. have left Nigeria because they could no longer meet up with their daily business responsibilities and Unilever Plc and Peterson Zochonis (PZ) Plc that are one of the giant manufacturing companies with over 5000 work force are planning to leave the country economy just because the country has failed to provide them with constant power supply and infrastructure that guarantee them successful operations. Peterson Zochonis (PZ) that has spent about 100 years in Nigeria is now planning its move to the neighbouring countries like Ghana to establish its new operation alongside Unilever because there is stable and efficient supply of power over there.

 

According to them, Nigeria will still be their largest market but they just need to move elsewhere where they could be guaranteed of reduced production costs. Another case is Cadbury Plc that has not patronized Nigerian Government for its power supply just because it cannot risk the problem of epileptic power supply due to the nature of its operations and products. So, the idea behind this thesis is to examine and bring to light how Finland could collaboration with Nigeria in the area of energy and help to rebuild the country‟s economy by rebuilding the energy, industrial sectors and ensure sustainable development of the country (Kehinde, Adeleye & Edwards 2009).