Yahyah: Nigeria, Others Need $3bn Settlement Fund to Unlock $3 Trillion Energy Market

Suleiman Yahyah, chairman of RHG Advisory, has called for a $3 billion regional settlement facility to unlock a potential $3 trillion energy market in West Africa by 2035. Speaking at the West African Refined Fuel Market (WARFM) conference in Abuja, Yahyah emphasized the need for harmonized regulations and deeper cross-border integration to transform the region's energy framework.

He argued that treating energy development as a collection of individual national projects would take many years to achieve the desired outcomes, but a systems-based approach could accelerate the process. The West African energy market currently suffers from significant energy poverty, with over 600 million people lacking access to clean power.

To address this, Yahyah proposed an integrated regional energy market where transactions would increasingly take place across national borders while retaining national regulatory responsibilities. This would require harmonizing regulatory frameworks, common product specifications, shared data standards, modern energy contracts, interconnected infrastructure, and a regional dispute resolution mechanism.

Central banks, the African Finance Corporation, the African Development Bank, sovereign wealth funds, and the African Energy Bank are urged to collaborate in establishing the proposed $3 billion settlement facility, which could be anchored in Naira. Yahyah identified liquidity as a critical requirement for the proposed market and suggested leveraging the existing Pan-African Payment and Settlement System to facilitate transactions.

He also stressed the importance of talent in building the regional market, advocating for strategic partnerships with established global market institutions such as S&P Global, Argus, and Bloomberg.