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Professor Barth Nnaji to deliver 2025 bullion lecture on Nigeria’s $1-Trillion economy vision

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Professor Barth Nnaji, Bullion Lecture, Nigeria energy sector, Nigeria $1-trillion economy, energy sector reform

Professor Barth Nnaji will deliver the 2025 Bullion Lecture on Nigeria’s energy sector, focusing on the country’s $1 trillion economy vision.

 

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Globally acclaimed energy expert, Professor Barth Nnaji, is set to deliver the 2025 edition of The Bullion Lecture on April 10, 2025.

The lecture, themed “Architecting the Energy Sector for Nigeria’s $1-Trillion Economy Vision,” will take place at The Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, starting at 10 a.m.

Professor Nnaji, a renowned figure in the energy industry, is the Founder and CEO of Geometric Power Limited, Nigeria’s pioneering private power company.

His distinguished career includes serving as the Minister of Power from 2011 to 2012, where he spearheaded the privatisation of the country’s power sector.

Nnaji’s leadership also saw the successful unbundling of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) during his tenure as the Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power.

A recipient of three national honours, including the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), and the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), Nnaji’s contributions to Nigeria’s energy sector and economic development are widely recognised.

In addition to his career in Nigeria, he held esteemed academic positions as a professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts and later as the William Kepler Whiteford Professor of Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.

Nnaji also received the prestigious Distinguished Scientist Award from the World Bank/IMF Africa Group in 1998.

The Bullion Lecture is an annual platform established by the Centre for Financial Journalism to foster discussions on national and international issues.

Previous lectures have been delivered by top academics and professionals, making this event one of the most anticipated in Nigeria’s intellectual calendar.

The 2025 lecture will be graced by Chief Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power, as the Special Guest of Honour. The lecture will be chaired by Tolulope Longe, the National President of Women in Energy Oil and Gas (WEOG).

Panelists for the event include Sir Victor Okoronkwo, Group Managing Director of Aiteo E&P, and Dr. Ogho Okiti, CEO of ThinkBusiness Africa and Convener of the Africa Business Convention.

The panel will offer insights and analysis following Nnaji’s presentation on Nigeria’s energy sector and its role in achieving the country’s economic goals.

Expected attendees include government officials, captains of industry, banking executives, energy sector leaders, legal professionals, and members of the diplomatic corps.

The event will also attract representatives from international organisations and the media, further elevating the conversation around Nigeria’s energy transformation and its potential to drive economic growth.

The 2025 Bullion Lecture promises to be an exciting opportunity for stakeholders to engage in meaningful dialogue about Nigeria’s energy future and the role of the energy sector in realising the nation’s ambitious $1 trillion economy vision.

 

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Heirs Life Names Pastor Jerry Eze Independent Non-Executive Director

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Heirs Life appoints Jerry Eze as an Independent Non-Executive Director to strengthen financial inclusion, consumer trust and insurance adoption (more…)

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Shoreline Group secures US$200 million Afreximbank Facility

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Shoreline Group today announced that African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has approved a US$200 million facility in favour of Shoreline Power Company Limited and co-borrowers including Arkad S.p.A., Shoreline’s majority-owned engineering and construction platform.
Approved in June 2026, the facility was arranged and provided by Afreximbank as sole mandated lead arranger and lender. It provides bonding and working-capital capacity for Arkad’s delivery of the Hassi Bir Rekaiz project and supports Shoreline and its affiliates in developing further pipeline and infrastructure
projects in Nigeria and other permitted jurisdictions.
“This is a defining transaction for Shoreline and Arkad. We built Arkad as an African- sponsored engineering platform capable of competing at the highest level, and it is now delivering against a billion-dollar energy contract. Afreximbank’s US$200 million commitment gives the platform the financial strength to match its engineering capability and pursue further major infrastructure mandates. It demonstrates that African enterprises can assemble the capital, capability and partnerships required to compete for infrastructure at international scale.”
Hassi Bir Rekaiz Phase 2a Arkad holds 44 per cent of the approximately US$1 billion EPCCS-1 contract awarded by Groupement
Hassi Bir Rekaiz (GHBR) to an unincorporated consortium led by Egypt’s Petrojet, which holds 56 percent. EPCCS-1 covers engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and start-up for the Phase 2a central processing facility and related infrastructure at the Hassi Bir Rekaiz field in Algeria’s Berkine
Basin.
GHBR is the joint operating entity for the licence, held by Sonatrach with 51 per cent and Thailand’s PTTEP with 49 per cent. The project includes a new crude oil processing facility with capacity of 31,500 barrels per day, facilities for associated gas and produced-water treatment, approximately 217 kilometres
of pipelines and the brownfield modifications required to integrate existing Phase 1 infrastructure.
The facilities are designed to support later expansion to 63,000 barrels per day under Phase 2b.
“This financing addresses the instruments that determine whether an EPC contractor can execute at scale: performance guarantees, advance payment guarantees and working capital through the project cycle. Hassi Bir Rekaiz is a demanding scope, combining a new central processing facility, associated treatment systems, pipelines and brownfield integration. With Petrojet, and with the support of Shoreline and Afreximbank, Arkad is focused on disciplined delivery against the project’s safety, quality and schedule requirements.”
The transaction was structured under Afreximbank’s Engineering, Procurement and Construction Initiative, which supports African engineering and construction firms with the financial instruments required to compete for and execute large infrastructure contracts. Afreximbank also supported the Arkad-Petrojet partnership through its EPC twinning work at the Intra-African Trade Fair held in Algiers
in 2025.
According to Afreximbank, the transaction is its first support for a Sub-Saharan African contractor undertaking a major infrastructure project in North Africa. For Shoreline, it demonstrates a practical model for combining African ownership and capital with established international engineering andindustrial capability.

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BUSINESSWOMAN AISHA ACHIMUGU SPEAKS OUT, CALLS FOR PROTECTION OF LIFE AND RESPECT FOR RULE OF LAW

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Nigerian businesswoman and investor Aisha Achimugu has made a public appeal for the protection of her life, her family, and her business interests while alleging a sustained campaign of intimidation, media trial, and asset seizures.

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Achimugu, in a statement Tuesday, said she is facing actions that she described as an affront to the rule of law and natural justice.
She then called for the respect for court orders and for an end to what she termed misleading media coverage about her person and companies.
According to Achimugu, the widow of the late Engr. Sulaiman Achimugu, former Managing Director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, she has over the last three decades built businesses in the oil and gas and other sectors, and runs the SAM Empowerment Foundation, SEF, which she said has implemented health, education, and community projects across Nigeria.
The businesswoman, however, alleged that since 2023 she has been the subject of investigations and actions by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Narrating her ordeals, Achimugu noted that in 2023, the EFCC’s Port Harcourt zonal office froze her personal accounts, her children’s accounts, and company accounts linked to the Felak Group, based on an interim forfeiture order.
She said this was connected to a mistaken association with MBA Forex and Capital Investment.
Achimugu stated that in January 2024 she honoured an EFCC invitation with her counsel, clarified her company’s single transaction with MBA Forex, and refunded N58 million by bank draft to the EFCC recovery account.
In March 2025, the businesswoman said she received WhatsApp messages inviting her to the EFCC Port Harcourt office. Her lawyer responded in writing, proposing dates in April 2025. Despite this, she alleged a media campaign began on March 10, 2025 linking her to wrongdoing.
On March 28, 2025, the same day her company, Oceangate Oil & Gas Limited, submitted proof of $20 million payment to NUPRC for oil blocks PPL 302-DO and PPL 3007, subsequently, she claimed the EFCC declared her a “Wanted Person” for “conspiracy and money laundering.” She also alleged that EFCC operatives searched her home that day.
In April 2025, Achimugu said she filed a fundamental rights suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja. But upon returning to Nigeria on April 28, 2025 from a foreign trip, she alleged she was taken into EFCC custody, granted bail by a judge, but released five days later. She also said her international passport was collected.
She alleged further asset actions, including freezing of bank accounts, and the seizure of vehicles from her home in January 2026. She said matters relating to these actions are the subject of ongoing litigation and appeals.
Achimugu also alleged that her United States visa was revoked in April 2025, and that she encountered issues with visa processing related to her Grenadian citizenship, which she linked to media reports citing the EFCC’s declaration.
Achimugu stated that she has invested nearly $90 million in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in the last five years and has attracted over $100 million in investments into the economy while directly employs close to 200 Nigerians.
However, she said the actions of the anti-graft agency have affected her business operations, international partnerships, and family, including her elderly parents and young children.
Achimugu then called on the National Assembly, the Judiciary, security services, and local and international human rights organizations to examine her case.
She also asked for the protection of her life and properties, respect for court orders, and an end to what she described as a “media trial”.
“I believe that justice delayed is justice denied, and I am not afraid to face the law provided due process is followed. My lawyers are pursuing all legal remedies locally and internationally,” she said.
Achimugu added that she remains committed to Nigeria and to supporting private sector growth.

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