The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Renaissance Africa Energy, Tony Attah, has described Nigeria as a “land of energy abundance but energy poverty,” lamenting that despite possessing over 37 billion barrels of oil and 210 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas, the country still struggles with widespread energy deprivation.

According to him, “Over 85 million Nigerians lack access to electricity. Energy poverty is not just inconvenient, it is lethal. It kills education, health, innovation, and dreams.”

Attah stated this while delivering the keynote address at the 2025 Africa Energy Conference organized by the Lagos Business School (LBS) Energy Club and the MBA Careers and Placement Unit, themed “Powering Nigeria: Advancing Inclusive Energy Security for Sustainable Growth.”

Attah therefore urged Nigeria to leverage its vast natural gas reserves as a transition and destination fuel to drive inclusive economic growth, industrialization, and energy security across the continent.

He also called on Africa to “decarbonize without deindustrializing, and transition without exclusion”. He warned that the continent must pursue energy justice that fits its realities.

“Africa’s energy future must be built by Africans, for Africans, and with home-grown solutions,” he said. “The future is not something we enter, it is something we create.”

In his welcoming address, Franklin Ngwu, Director of the Public Sector Initiative at Lagos Business School and representative of the Dean, Olayinka David-West, articulated that the conference functions as a strategic platform for profound discourse on Africa’s energy future, particularly at a juncture when the continent confronts pressing economic and environmental challenges.

He said, “This conference is not just another event. “It is a timely forum for discussing how to ensure reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy for all Nigerians.”

Ngwu identified three critical areas of focus for the dialogue, policy and governance, evolving energy trends, and financing the transition, noting that achieving energy inclusion requires collaboration among government, academia, and the private sector.

“Energy is the backbone of economic inclusion, social equity, and industrial development,” he said. “No nation can industrialise without a functional energy sector.”

Also speaking, the President of the LBS Energy Club, Shweta Srivastava,  articulated that the vision behind the Africa Energy Conference was to establish a conduit between the conventional energy sector and the renewable energy movement, encouraging collaboration rather than disjointed dialogues.

She explained that the student-led initiative began as an idea and had evolved into a continental platform that attracts policymakers, investors, and innovators committed to solving Africa’s energy challenges.

“We wanted to create a space where government, regulators, financial institutions, and technology innovators could come together, not to work in silos, but to build synergy,” she said.