I thought my part two on gas was my final word - until readers challenged me at the end to clarify one critical question: What is the level of infrastructural preparedness to receive gas for distribution to consumers? They demanded that I go beyond the grand visions of pipelines and hubs and examine whether Nigeria is actually ready to take delivery of the gas and get it to the people who need it. I, therefore, crave the indulgence of my readers to allow me to come back and finish the business as they require of me. This is that answer.
Nigeria sits on 210 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves - the largest in Africa and the ninth largest in the world. Yet, despite this abundance, the country has only about 2,500 kilometres of gas pipelines. Algeria, with a population nearly five times smaller, has 13,000 kilometres. France, with a population nearly four times smaller, operates 37,000 kilometres. This is not a resource problem. It is a distribution problem. The question that readers have rightly demanded I answer is this: even if the gas is produced, even if the AKK and OB3 pipelines are completed, is Nigeria's infrastructure ready to receive that gas and distribute it to consumers across the 36 states? The answer, like most things in Nigeria, is complicated. There is progress - genuine, measurable progress. But there are also gaps so wide that they threaten to swallow the entire ambition of the Decade of Gas.
To understand just how inadequate 2,500 kilometres truly is, we must do the arithmetic. Nigeria's population is approximately 220 million people. That gives us roughly 11.4 kilometres of gas pipeline for every one million Nigerians. Algeria, by contrast, with a population of about 45 million and 13,000 kilometres of pipeline, has 289 kilometres per million people - 25 times more pipeline coverage per capita than Nigeria. France, with 37,000 kilometres for 68 million people, has 544 kilometres per million people - nearly 48 times more. Even if we use the higher estimate of 7,000 kilometres sometimes cited by industry observers, that still gives Nigeria only 31.8 kilometres per million people - still less than one-eighth of Algeria's per capita coverage. To match Algeria's per capita pipeline coverage, Nigeria would need over 30,000 kilometres of pipelines - more than ten times our current network. The NNPC itself has acknowledged this, stating in its Gas Master Plan 2026 that the current network, "spanning over 2,500km, is a significant foundation but remains insufficient to meet the nation's burgeoning industrial and power demands".
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The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline is the single largest gas pipeline project in Nigeria's history. Spanning 614 kilometres at a cost of $2.8 billion, it is designed to transport 3,500 million standard cubic feet of gas per day from Ajaokuta in Kogi State to Kano, traversing Abuja and Kaduna. By July 2026, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited reported that the pipeline had reached 98 per cent completion, with the main line laid from Ajaokuta to Kano. The River Niger crossing - a technically complex feat - was successfully completed in June 2025. But here is the catch. Six years after the project was flagged off in 2020, and despite multiple completion deadlines, the pipeline is yet to function. The NNPCL has said it is considering September 2026 for commissioning. Meanwhile, checks show that major gas stations and terminals to be constructed along the pipeline's corridor are yet to start, with the exception of the Ajaokuta axis. The Gwagwalada station is projected to be completed within the next 12 to 16 months. In other words, the pipe is laid, but the off-take infrastructure that will actually deliver gas to consumers is not ready. The OB3 pipeline, which connects the Eastern gas network to the Western network, has also achieved its River Niger crossing. With a capacity of two billion standard cubic feet per day, it serves as a backbone linking the East to the West and extending connectivity to the North through the AKK. But the OB3 has been under construction for more than 13 years, and as of August 2025, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources was still describing it as "nearing completion".
Pipelines are only half the story. Before gas can flow through pipes, it must be processed. Nigeria's total installed gas processing capacity reached 17.2 billion standard cubic feet per day as of October 2025. But the average operating capacity was only 3.94 billion standard cubic feet per day, representing a utilisation rate of just 64.7 per cent. This gap between installed capacity and actual utilisation is a red flag. It means that even when the gas is available, the plants are not operating at full capacity. Nigeria currently commercialises only about 60 per cent of its total gas production, with the remaining volumes either reinjected for oil recovery or lost to routine flaring. Nigeria ranks as the 7th largest gas-flaring nation in the world. South Africa, by contrast, with no significant natural gas reserves of its own, has invested heavily in gas import infrastructure and distribution networks. If a country with no gas can build pipelines, why can a country with abundant gas not do the same?
If the pipelines and processing plants are the arteries of the gas economy, the distribution networks are the capillaries that deliver gas to the end consumer. And here, the picture is alarming. The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has raised concern over the country's slow pace in developing compressed natural gas infrastructure, saying there are fewer than 50 compression stations across Nigeria. There are just 3,000 cooking gas refilling plants across the country. For a nation of over 200 million people, these numbers are woefully inadequate. By October 2025, the Presidential CNG Initiative had commissioned its 58th CNG refuelling station, extending the network to cover 28 of Nigeria's 36 states. This is progress, but it is progress from a base so low that it barely registers. The government has announced plans for 500 CNG stations over the next three years, but even 500 stations for 200 million people is a ratio that would be considered inadequate in any serious industrial economy.
The North has been the biggest loser in Nigeria's gas story. Over 90 per cent of domestic gas consumption takes place in the South. The AKK pipeline is supposed to change that. But the question remains: even when the pipeline is completed, will the North have the infrastructure to receive and distribute the gas? Ten gas distribution licences were issued in 2025, with licensed networks currently serving about 430 customers. But 430 customers is a drop in the ocean. The North has been promised gas for decades. The people of Kano, Kaduna, and Abuja have heard about the AKK pipeline for years. Until the gas actually flows, until the distribution stations are built, the North will remain an energy desert.
There is a direct link between gas infrastructure and national security. When a region has no power, no industry, and no jobs, the young men of that region have three choices: starve, migrate, or turn to crime. If the AKK pipeline is completed, it will supply gas to power plants in Abuja, Kaduna, and Kano, generating 3,600 megawatts of power. That power can run factories. Factories can employ thousands. Those thousands will not join bandit groups. Farmers can go to their fields without fear of kidnapping. Crime will decrease. This is not theory. It is cause and effect. The solution to Nigeria's insecurity is not foreign weapons or mercenaries. It is not spurious excuses like "Christian genocide" or any other diversionary narrative. These excuses are lies - designed to turn citizens against one another while the real culprits walk free. A young man who has not eaten in two days does not care about the religion of the person he robs. He cares about survival.
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So, is Nigeria ready to receive and distribute its gas? The honest answer is: not yet. The pipelines are being built, but they are not finished. The processing plants exist, but they are not fully utilised. The distribution networks are expanding, but from a base that is embarrassingly low. With only 2,500 kilometres of pipeline for 220 million people - a mere 11.4 kilometres per million Nigerians - the gap is a chasm. This is not a counsel of despair. It is a call to urgency. Nigeria has made genuine progress, but progress is not the same as completion. The solution is not external. It is not in foreign aid or foreign intervention. It is in Nigerian pipelines, Nigerian gas, and Nigerian political will. The gas is already there, waiting to be delivered. The only question is whether Nigeria will deliver it - or whether, like so many other projects, it will be left to rust. The six geopolitical zones cannot wait. The North cannot wait. The youth cannot wait. Every day that the gas does not flow is a day that another young Nigerian picks up a gun or a laptop to steal. The gas is there. The technology is there. The investment is there. The only missing ingredient is governance. If Nigeria can get that right, the gas will flow. The factories will run. The jobs will come. The insecurity will recede. The final answer to my readers is this: Nigeria is not yet ready. But it can be. The question is whether we will choose to be ready - or whether we will continue to wait, as we have waited for decades, for a future that never arrives.
