Gas Infrastructure Fund Unlocks N1.6trn in Private Gas Infrastructure Funding With N671bn Public Stake

The Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund (MDGIF) said it has deployed N671 billion in public capital to crowd in N1.6 trillion in private-sector investment for gas infrastructure projects across Nigeria, as the government pushes to unlock the country’s estimated 215 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

MDGIF’s executive director, Oluwole Adama, disclosed the figures at the 2026 Annual Conference of the Association of Energy Correspondents of Abuja (AECAF), in Abuja on Thursday.

Represented by the Fund’s director, Strategy, Research and Deal Origination, Elvis Duruji, and speaking on the theme “Derisking Domestic Gas Infrastructure,” Adama said the intervention has now backed 31 projects comprising 205 infrastructure assets nationwide, which are expected to add about 475 million standard cubic feet of gas per day to the domestic market once fully operational — a volume officials say could lift national gas supply by roughly 25 per cent above current daily production of about 1.9 billion standard cubic feet.

MDGIF’s model, established under the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, is built around using public money to absorb early-stage project risk — financing, infrastructure gaps, regulatory uncertainty and commercial risk — so that projects become attractive enough for banks and private investors to fund at scale. Officials frame the resulting private capital not as a subsidy outcome but as converting bankable-but-stalled projects into operating assets.

Adama noted that beyond core infrastructure financing, MDGIF has partnered four flare-gas awardees whose projects are projected to monetise 444 million standard cubic feet of gas daily and cut emissions by about 2,845 tonnes a day.

The Fund has also backed 30 unincorporated joint ventures and an equipment-leasing company covering 20 CNG mother stations and more than 80 CNG daughter stations, with a further 75 daughter stations financed through the leasing arrangement — part of a wider push to widen last-mile CNG access, including stations across 20 universities.

“The fund is a public fund, and we see platforms like this as an opportunity to come and account and state: ‘This is what we are doing,’” he said, describing MDGIF as a catalytic institution rather than a passive financier tasked with making commercially difficult but strategically important gas projects viable.

He said the fund has mobilised private investment worth about 2.4 times its own contribution, calling it evidence that its risk-sharing model works.

“We’ve been able to use the fund we have to reduce investment barriers, attracting more private investors to partner with MDGIF, and this is the success story,” he said.

Adama said that if all 30 partnership projects and 205 ongoing infrastructure assets in the fund’s portfolio are completed, they could raise Nigeria’s domestic gas supply by roughly 25 per cent, based on the country’s current output of about 1.9 billion standard cubic feet per day.

He identified high financing costs, inadequate infrastructure, regulatory uncertainty, and technical and commercial risks as the main obstacles holding back investment in the midstream gas sector.

On flare-gas commercialisation, Adama said MDGIF has partnered with four flare-out awardees whose projects are expected to monetise 444 million scf of gas daily that would otherwise be flared, while cutting about 2,845 metric tonnes of emissions per day.

He added that the fund has also partnered with 30 unincorporated joint ventures and one equipment leasing company covering 20 CNG mother stations, more than 80 CNG daughter stations, and 75 additional daughter stations financed through the leasing arrangement.

Among the fund’s flagship interventions, Adama pointed to a 5 million scf mini-LNG plant being developed by Topline Limited in Delta State, which he described as Nigeria’s first indigenous mini-LNG project.

He said the project had struggled for three years to secure financing before MDGIF’s equity investment helped unlock an InfraCredit guarantee.

“That particular project had gone around looking for funds for three years but couldn’t secure any. After partnering with MDGIF, the facility is now expected to be commissioned within the next two to three months,” he said.

Other projects supported by the fund include CNG infrastructure across 20 universities, as well as Ibile Oil and Gas in Lagos and Rolling Energy in Abuja.

Duruji said MDGIF’s long-term goal is to absorb the early-stage risks associated with gas projects, making them more attractive to lenders and private investors.

“The missing link is vulnerability. MDGIF’s catalytic role is to price and absorb part of the early risk, turning uncertainty into bankability, bankability into private investment, and investment into operating gas infrastructure,” he said.