Ile — Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Limited, Mr. Mele Kyari, yesterday, noted that for Nigeria to prosper and develop, it must bridge the energy gap.

Speaking at the Faculty of Science of the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Osun State, during the 2024 Faculty Lecture titled 'Energy Security, Sustainability and Profitability in Nigeria: Challenges and Opportunity', he stated that 50 per cent of Nigerians have no access to electricity.

According to him, another 75 per cent of the population have no access to clean cooking energy, stressing that stakeholders must strive to harness the country's potential to ensure that it prospers.

His words: "Energy, indeed, is everything! It is a key concern for poor rural communities that trek long distances to gather biomass for domestic cooking, as well as advanced societies that rely on multiple sources of energy to satisfy domestic, transportation, and industrial needs.

"Seventy-five per cent of Nigeria's population have no access to clean cooking energy, and 50 per cent have no access to electricity. For these people, the government must provide to bridge the energy gap, as a form of security for prosperity, before looking at the issue of sustainability."

The NNPCL boss admitted that the challenge in the energy sector is a non-conducive environment for investment especially the issue of security, vandalisation and fiscal policy.

In his opening remarks, the Dean of the Faculty of Science, OAU, Prof Olufemi Adesina, said the faculty, through the Centre of Excellence for Combined Energy Smart Innovations and Technologies (CoE-CESIT), seeks to attract and develop expertise in emerging areas of energy science and technology research relevant to addressing both industry and educational needs.