The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) is targeting up to $10 billion in additional investment in Nigeria’s gas sector through the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund (MDGIF).
The NMDPRA Chief Executive Officer, Rabiu Abdullahi Umar, disclosed this on Wednesday during a panel session at the 2026 Gastech Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
Umar said the fund was designed to use government-backed equity and seed capital to reduce investment risks in gas infrastructure projects and attract larger private-sector investments into the industry.
“We have a fund which is called the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund, and that fund is designed to de-risk projects. So we put in equity,” he said.
He clarified that the $10 billion represented the additional investment the fund aims to unlock through its interventions and does not represent funds already invested by the government.
“The $10 billion is the target to say, can we reach a point where we unlock investment in that space of up to $10 billion? That is the kind of trajectory that we’re looking at in terms of deepening investment in gas,” Umar said.
The NMDPRA chief said the MDGIF had already deployed about $300 million to de-risk gas projects across different segments of the value chain.
The investments cover areas including liquefied natural gas (LNG), floating LNG, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG).
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The latest target builds on the fund’s previous interventions. In May 2026, the MDGIF said it had committed more than N430 billion to gas infrastructure projects across Nigeria and catalysed about N1.6 trillion in total investment.
At the time, the fund said its investments covered 31 gas infrastructure projects involving 125 facilities.
The intervention has also supported the expansion of CNG infrastructure, including projects commissioned in Lagos, Abuja and Owerri in May.
Umar said further expansion of Nigeria’s gas industry would depend on adequate infrastructure, predictable regulation and continued government intervention in projects where public support is required to attract private capital.
He identified regulatory certainty as a critical factor in investors’ decisions, stressing that investors need confidence in the regulatory framework before committing substantial capital.
The NMDPRA chief also highlighted major infrastructure projects, including the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline and the proposed Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline, as part of efforts to improve gas transportation and open new markets.
He said Nigeria’s gas strategy was focused on ensuring sufficient gas availability, affordability and infrastructure, noting that the country has more than 210 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.
The latest $10 billion target represents another step in the government’s strategy of using public capital to reduce investment risks and leverage larger private-sector funding for gas infrastructure.
In November 2025, NMDPRA said the MDGIF had committed more than N287 billion to 62 projects involving 16 companies and had catalysed an additional $500 million through a partnership with Afreximbank.
Umar said the authority would continue developing an investment framework capable of expanding gas infrastructure and supporting increased domestic and regional gas utilisation.
