840,000 Energy Jobs Target: Report Questions Nigeria’s Skills Readiness

Nigeria’s ambition to create 840,000 jobs through its energy transition by 2050 may face significant workforce and institutional capacity challenges, with a new report warning that the country lacks sufficient public data to establish whether it has the skilled personnel needed to deliver its $500 billion energy investment plan.

The report, Can Nigeria Deliver Its Energy Transition Plan? Nigeria Energy Transition Capability Baseline 2026, published by Energy Transition Africa (ETA), found that Nigeria could not yet demonstrate that its existing workforce and institutions were adequate to meet the scale and pace of its planned energy transformation.

According to the report, Nigeria’s updated Energy Transition and Investment Plan, published in November 2024, projects approximately $500 billion in additional investment, 277 gigawatts of installed power capacity by 2060 and 840,000 new jobs by 2050.

However, the research found that publicly available evidence does not provide a consolidated assessment of the number of professionals required, the occupations needed, where they would be deployed or whether existing training and institutional systems could meet the demand.

“Nigeria has a plan for the megawatts and a projection for the jobs. But where is the workforce plan connecting the two?” asked Vincent Egoro, executive director of ETA and research lead for the report.