Category: News

Sahara Group has released its 2025 Sustainability Report, reaffirming its commitment to responsible energy development and sustainable business practices across its global operations.

The report, themed “Sustainability Beyond XXX: Responsible Growth, Enduring Impact”, sets out how Sahara integrates environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and governance discipline across its upstream, midstream, downstream, power, energy trading, and oilfield services businesses.

Commenting on the report, Ejiro Gray, Director, Governance & Sustainability at Sahara Group, said the publication reflects a Group wide sustainability approach across the full energy value chain. “Our sustainability journey runs across all our businesses, from upstream operations and oilfield services to power generation and energy trading. By embedding environmental responsibility, social impact and strong governance into how we operate, we are strengthening the foundation for long term value creation,” she said.

The Sustainability Report highlights measurable progress across environmental protection, safety, and social impact. These include the avoidance of over 600,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions through recycling initiatives, the recovery of significant volumes of recyclable materials through circular economy programmes, and the maintenance of a zero lost time injury record across several businesses, supported by more than four million man hours worked safely across operations.

Photo Captipn (L-R): Emilomo Arorote, Group Head HR; Sahara Group, Ejiro Gray, Director, Governance and Sustainability, Sahara Group;  Bashir Umar, Sustainability Analyst, Sahara Group; Bethel Obioma, Head, Corporate Communications, Sahara Group; Olanrewaju Durojaiye, Company Secretary, Sahara Group; and Chidilim Menakaya, Director, Sahara Group Foundation at the unveiling of the 2025 Sahara Group Sustainability Report in Lagos

The report also details sustained community investments, including education and skills development initiatives, reaching tens of thousands of beneficiaries across Sahara Group’s markets.

According to Bethel Obioma, Group Head, Corporate Communications at Sahara Group, the report reflects a deliberate shift toward a Beyond Energy approach, positioning sustainability as a core business imperative across the entire energy value chain. “The Beyond Energy theme captures how we articulate responsibility across all our businesses. It provides a clear and consistent narrative of how Sahara Group approaches growth, impact and accountability as an African rooted company operating to global standards,” he said.

Within its upstream and oilfield services operations, Sahara Group maintains a strong focus on environmental management, operational integrity, safety and host community engagement. Sustainability considerations are embedded into project planning and execution, with emphasis on responsible exploration and production practices, asset stewardship, and alignment with evolving environmental and regulatory expectations.

Across energy trading and downstream businesses, the Sahara prioritises transparency, efficiency, and responsible supply chain management, reinforcing ethical conduct and environmental responsibility across global trading and logistics activities.

In power generation and infrastructure, sustainability efforts remain centred on reliable energy delivery, operational efficiency, and long-term system resilience, supporting development objectives while aligning with energy transition priorities.

The report also reflects Sahara Group’s ongoing investment in renewable energy platforms, nature-based solutions and circular economy initiatives, alongside social investments aimed at delivering lasting value in the communities where the Sahara operates.

Governance remains a central pillar of Sahara Group’s sustainability framework, with the report outlining how sustainability considerations are embedded into enterprise risk management and strategic decision making across all business divisions, including upstream and oilfield services, to strengthen accountability and organisational resilience.

Prepared in line with global sustainability reporting frameworks and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the report signals the forward-looking posture of the energy conglomerate’s Sahara Beyond XXX mantra, the theme driving the celebration of Sahara Group’s 30 years of delivering energy responsibly.

Nigeria’s electricity challenge is no longer about how much power the country can generate, but how intelligently it can deliver it, Dr. Kola Adesina, Group Managing Director of Sahara Power Group, has said.

Delivering remarks on his behalf at the IoT West Africa Conference in Lagos, Emilomo Arorote, Group Head, Human Resources at Sahara Group, said Adesina made a compelling case for the adoption of a digital grid as the fastest and most sustainable pathway to achieving reliable power supply across the country.

According to Adesina, while Nigeria has built significant generation capacity over the years, persistent supply gaps remain due to limited grid visibility, insufficient real-time data, and weak system intelligence.

He explained that a digital grid introduces real-time awareness, automation, and predictive intelligence into electricity networks. “Sensors deployed on transformers and other critical assets can detect faults before failures occur, while smart meters improve transparency and billing accuracy,” he said.

He added that advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence, layered over live operational data, enable operators to forecast demand, reduce technical and commercial losses, identify energy theft more quickly, and shift from reactive to preventive maintenance.

Adesina cited practical examples demonstrating the impact of digital solutions. In Abia State, the Aba Power industrial cluster operates as a near isolated smart grid that automatically disconnects from the national system within milliseconds when instability is detected, ensuring continuity of supply for customers.

In South Africa, improved grid operations have delivered more than 320 consecutive days without load shedding, largely on existing infrastructure. Mozambique has also recorded significant progress, reducing electricity losses from 43 percent to 21 percent through the deployment of smart prepaid meters. He said granting import duty waivers on critical digital grid equipment such as sensors, smart meters, and battery storage systems would further strengthen the electricity value chain.

He noted that Sahara Power Group’s inclusion on the Mission 300 Private Sector Council, a collaborative initiative led by the World Bank and other partners to extend electricity access to 300 million Africans by 2030, demonstrates the increasing international trust in solutions driven by the private sector.

Adesina urged electricity sector operators to begin digitising critical assets immediately, rather than waiting for ideal conditions, and encouraged financiers to expand the use of blended finance, combining public, philanthropic, and private capital to unlock investment in Nigeria’s electricity distribution segment.

He also urged young Nigerian engineers, developers, and technology founders to build solutions for the digital grid, stressing that operators are ready to adopt innovations that deliver measurable impact.

“The quantum leap is not a slogan; it is a decision,” Adesina said. “With the right partnerships and choices, reliable electricity is within reach, and the future of Nigeria’s power sector can be one of resilience, confidence, and growth.”

As Africa grapples with widening energy access gaps and heightened global supply volatility, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is emerging as the continent’s most immediate and scalable bridge to clean, reliable, and secure energy, Wale Ajibade, Executive Director, Sahara Group has said.

This position took centre stage at the African Refiners & Distributors Association (ARDA) 2026 Leadership Side Chat and Roundtable, where Sahara Group made a compelling case for LPG as a practical transition fuel uniquely suited to Africa’s development realities.

“Africa’s transition must be built around solutions that work now,” Ajibade said. “LPG is not an interim compromise, it is the fastest bridge to energy access, resilience and shared prosperity for Africa.”

He said recent global supply disruptions have laid bare Africa’s exposure to external shocks, citing the impact of the crisis at the Strait of Hormuz which pushed Brent crude prices above $110 per barrel, severely affecting LPG and LNG flows to Africa.

“For African economies, the lesson is clear: energy resilience is built through infrastructure that incorporates robust storage, shipping optionality, diversified sourcing and regional coordination. The continent must outgrow its dependency on fragile global routes,” Ajibade said.

He noted that the clean cooking deficit on the continent, where nearly one billion people in sub‑Saharan Africa still lack access to clean cooking solutions can be addressed with “collaborative, harmonised policies, and investment driven continent-wide adoption of LPG.”

This position aligns with ARDA projections that over 60% of future clean cooking access in Africa will be delivered through LPG, which already accounts for 75% of recent clean cooking transitions across the region. In addition, despite accounting for just 4% of global LPG consumption, experts say Africa’s constraint is not demand but delivery systems which can best be driven by solid LPG infrastructure.

He noted that unlocking the next phase of growth for LPG in Africa would require harmonised LPG import duties and cylinder standards, bankable storage and distribution frameworks, targeted household adoption incentives and blended finance models, and data‑driven monitoring of clean cooking progress.

Ajibade said Sahara Group continues to lead Africa’s energy transition debate as an active builder of LPG infrastructure across Africa. “Over the past decade, Sahara Group has pursued a deliberate, integrated LPG strategy spanning trading, shipping, storage and last‑mile distribution. Working alongside its partners, Sahara has delivered over six million cubic metres of LPG across West Africa since 2017, supported by a growing fleet of LPG carriers and expanding storage capacity.”

Sahara Group has urged African governments, investors, and industry leaders to accelerate intra-African investment as a critical lever for industrialisation, stressing that the continent’s growth challenge is no longer about ideas or endowment, but about execution at scale.

Speaking at the African Refiners and Distributors Association (ARDA) Week, currently underway in Cape Town, Temitope Shonubi, Executive Director, Sahara Group, said Africa must deliberately shift from fragmented national approaches to a continent-wide investment mindset, anchored in partnership, value creation, and local capital mobilisation.

“Africa’s challenges are well understood. What matters now is defining and committing to the path forward,” Shonubi said. “The gap between where Africa is and where it could be was built. That means it can also be unbuilt.”

Shonubi explained that Sahara Group’s approach is guided by its T.R.I.P.S framework – Transform, Reform, Inform, Perform, and Success, an execution focused model shaped by the company’s three decades of operating across Africa’s energy value chain.

He said Africa must first transform the narrative that frames the continent as an aid recipient rather than an investment partner. He noted that despite foreign direct investment into Africa surpassing official development assistance in recent years, perception continues to inflate the continent’s cost of capital by two to three times over, discouraging long-term investment. According to him, “Industrial value chains cannot scale on 54 rulebooks and dozens of currencies, every border reset erodes competitiveness and discourages investment.”

The framework, he added, also provides a pathway for policy reform to unlock intra-African trade, which currently accounts for just about 15 percent of total trade, and to address fragmented regulations, multiple currencies, and uneven implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that continue to stall the continent’s industrial ambition.

“Africa is not short of opportunity. What we lack is alignment – of policy, capital, skills, and execution,” Shonubi said. “Investment has already overtaken aid in scale, but not in mindset. Until Africa speaks to itself and the world as a credible investment destination, capital will remain cautious.”

A central pillar of the TRIPS approach, he noted, is informing and equipping Africa’s workforce, shifting education and training away from legacy systems that prepare graduates for consumption economies rather than value creation. With more than four-fifths of Africa’s workforce operating informally, skills development aligned directly to industrial demand remains essential if the continent is to move from exporting raw materials to processing and manufacturing at home.

The final test, Shonubi said, is performance, delivering infrastructure at scale, particularly in energy, where over 600 million Africans still lack access to electricity. Drawing from Sahara Group’s investments across power generation, distribution, and downstream energy, including 2.7GW of installed generation capacity and electricity supply to over 1.5 million households, he emphasised that execution must follow advocacy.

“One company is not enough,” he said. “Each stakeholder owns a letter. Governments must reform, industry must perform, investors must back long-term assets, and Africans must invest in Africa.”

He urged ARDA members, policymakers, financiers, and operators to treat TRIPS not as a concept, but as a collective contract that prioritises intra-African investment, regional scale, and sustained execution as the foundation for Africa’s next growth phase.

Sahara Power Group has joined the Mission 300 Private Sector Council, a high‑level platform announced by the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank (AFDB), and The Rockefeller Foundation to accelerate efforts to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030, while unlocking large‑scale job creation across the continent.

The inclusion of Sahara Power Group reflects its long‑standing role in strengthening Africa’s power ecosystem through investments across generation, distribution, renewable and off‑grid energy solutions, and data‑enabled infrastructure.
Kola Adesina, Group Managing Director of Sahara Power Group, has been appointed to the Mission 300 Private Sector Council, joining leaders from global energy, finance, infrastructure, and technology institutions.

Announcing the launch of the Council, Makhtar Diop, Managing Director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), said, “Mission 300’s success depends on mobilizing private investment at scale and implementing strategies shaped by businesses with experience in Africa’s energy sector. This council brings exactly that, senior leaders with the networks and expertise to translate ambition into impact.”
Adesina said the initiative underscores the indispensable role of the private sector in closing Africa’s electricity access gap.

“Closing Africa’s electricity gap will require strategic collaboration and sustained private investment,” Adesina said. “Mission 300 provides a credible platform for aligning policy ambition with bankable projects, and Sahara Power Group is proud to contribute its experience in developing, operating, and financing power assets that deliver reliable electricity and economic value.”
Adesina noted that Sahara Power Group’s participation aligns with its broader strategy of enabling power systems that support industrial growth, economic transformation, and inclusive development across Africa.

“Access to reliable electricity is a prerequisite for industrialisation and competitiveness. Through Mission 300, we have an opportunity to deepen collaboration between governments, development institutions, and private investors to bring energy responsibly to Africa,” he added.
Sahara Power Group is a subsidiary of Sahara Group, a global energy and infrastructure conglomerate, and operates the largest privately owned power business in Sub‑Saharan Africa through its affiliates. Its portfolio includes Egbin Power Plc, the largest thermal power plant in Sub‑Saharan Africa; Ikeja Electric, the region’s largest electricity distribution company; and First Independent Power Limited (FIPL), a leading generation company serving the Niger Delta region.

Mission 300 is designed to crowd in billions of dollars in private investment by strengthening national energy compacts, integrating regional power markets, expanding renewable and off‑grid solutions, and scaling catalytic finance structures that de‑risk investment.
Since its launch in 2024, the initiative has already connected 44 million people to electricity, with 30 countries signing national energy compacts to accelerate delivery.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has recorded a significant milestone with the introduction and lifting of 950,000 barrels of Cawthorne Blend crude into the global market through the ultramodern FSO Cawthorne vessel, Nigeria’s first new crude oil terminal in 50 years.

The development affirms media reports on the exportation of a new light sweet crude called Cawthorne, this March, under the Bayo Ojulari‑led NNPCL. It also reinforces the policy direction and sector reforms championed by His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, in his capacity as Nigeria’s substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources.

Over the weekend, the first shipment of 950,000 barrels from FSO Cawthorne, Nigeria’s newest oil terminal, was initiated following its licensing and gazetting by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

FSO Cawthorne serves as a critical offshore production support asset, providing storage and offtake capabilities for crude produced from OML 18 and nearby producing assets.

Reacting to the development, Sahara Group, a global energy and infrastructure conglomerate, reiterated the strategic role of FSO Cawthorne in strengthening Nigeria’s energy security through its reliable production, storage and evacuation infrastructure.

Sahara Group also recognised the advanced technologies deployed on FSO Cawthorne, noting that the facility incorporates cutting‑edge systems supported by artificial intelligence‑enabled monitoring and robust QHSE frameworks, enhancing operational efficiency, asset integrity, safety performance and environmental stewardship.

Sahara commended NNPCL for its leadership of OML 18, where Sahara Group is a joint operator and joint venture partner, noting that the company’s collaborative approach continues to drive continuous improvement and value delivery across Nigeria’s upstream sector.

Dr. Tosin Etomi, Head, Commercial and Planning at Asharami Energy (a Sahara Group Upstream company), said the crude lifting from FSO Cawthorne represents a defining moment for the asset, the OML 18 partnership and the wider oil and gas sector.

“The successful commencement of crude lifting from FSO Cawthorne is a significant milestone for the OML 18 partnership and a strong demonstration of what can be achieved through shared vision, technical discipline and committed collaboration,” Etomi said.

Etomi noted that the milestone aligns with Sahara Group’s broader upstream strategy, which is focused on building a resilient, scalable and responsible production portfolio anchored on strong partnerships, asset optimisation and long‑term value creation. “The transition of FSO Cawthorne into active export is consistent with our upstream growth strategy, prioritising operational excellence, indigenous participation and infrastructure capable of sustainably supporting Nigeria’s production ambitions,” he said.

He noted that Sahara Group’s upstream portfolio includes a growing oilfield services division, which is redefining innovation, efficiency and sustainability in the sector. “Our expanding oilfield services capabilities are integral to our upstream vision, enabling smarter operations, improved efficiencies and responsible resource development,” Etomi said.

He added: “Sustainable social impact interventions and community participation have been key drivers of our upstream success, and we remain committed to aligning our operations with the highest global environmental, social and governance standards.”

Etomi also commended host communities and key regulatory and operational institutions, including the NUPRC, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigeria Customs Service, and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), for their support in ensuring seamless operations.