The gas pipeline megaproject linking Nigeria to Morocco and later to Europe is arousing particular interest and attracting the attention of analysts and investors. This project, rightly called the gas highway, can be considered the most important in the world.

It is important because of the volume of gas it is likely to transport. Consider its distance, the number of countries it will supply with gas and the global population that will benefit from it. The estimated cost of its implementation and expected economic, social and geostrategic impact once completed is enormous. It is therefore, understandable that a project of this magnitude cannot be carried out without encountering difficulties and obstacles, especially of a technical nature.

Indeed, since the launch of the project in Abuja by HM, the King and the Nigerian President in December 2016, followed by the signing of a related agreement by the two Heads of State on June 10, 2018, in Rabat, there has been a series of technical meetings between officials of the two countries and multiple consultations with financial circles and potential investors. Today, everyone agrees that this project is reliable and feasible.

How the Gazoduc is getting finance and which countries will it cross?

The fact that the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) contributes $15.5 million to finance technical studies and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) grants it the sum of $14.3 million for the same objective shows that we are facing a serious project that has taken the right direction. The construction of the gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, Nord Stream 1, was spread over a period of 15 years between the date of its launch (1997) and the date of its effective commissioning (2012) for a distance of 1200 km. We fully realize the time it will take to complete the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline. The latter extends over a length of more than 3000 km, a large part of which is offshore and will cross no less than 11 countries, namely Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania. Except for Mauritania, all the other countries, including Nigeria, are a part of ECOWAS (Community of West African States).

An investment project that will have positive social impact

According to initial estimates, the project cost would be around $30 billion. This represents multiple economic, political and geostrategic challenges. The pipeline will contribute to revitalizing an entire region of Africa. By multiplying industrial activities that generate wealth and create jobs.

In addition to this collective gain, Nigeria will have the opportunity to make better use of its natural gas resources. Together with oil, natural resources constitute Nigeria’s main wealth. It has the largest reserves in Africa and ranks 7th in the world. This will result in a diversification of its activities and an improvement in the income of its population, which exceeds 200 million. Morocco will gain by ensuring its energy security by diversifiying its supply sources. Therefore meeting its growing energy needs to support economic development.

His Majesty, King Mohammed VI, affirmed in his speech to the Nation on the 47th anniversary of the Green March that the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline project is intended for present and future generations. It will serve the economic integration of the African continent and its development. "Given the continental dimension of the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, we also see it as a structuring project promising to link Africa and Europe", underlined HM the King.

Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline: a project for 440 million Africans

King Mohammed VI affirmed that the Moroccan Sahara has always constituted "a link between Morocco and its African depth on the human, cultural and economic levels". In His Majesty’s speech to the Nation on the occasion of the 47th anniversary of the Green March, he focused on all the large-scale social, economic and cultural achievements in the Moroccan Sahara. These initiatives have favoured the development of the southern regions of the Kingdom. The Sovereign affirmed, "Morocco's concern to always act, in concert with our brothers in Nigeria and all the partners, in full transparency and responsibility, so that this project is implemented as soon as possible".

Gazoduc project for African political integration

On the political level, such a project will boost African integration. Beginning with the strengthening of ECOWAS, which Morocco aspires to join. African integration is not achieved through pompous speeches and honeyed declarations but through concrete achievements and structuring projects. Gas and phosphates would play in Africa the role coal and steel played in Europe. Economic integration of the continent will give meaning to political integration as well as help member states overcome the quarrels that delay the contiental development and focus on common challenges.

Nigeria-Morocco Gazoduc pipeline is a geostrategic project

The African continent, which today has a population of 1.4 billion people, or 18% of the total population, will see its population double by 2050 and alone account for 25% of the world’s population.

The human wealth, combined with the varied and abundant natural resources with which African soil abounds, predisposes the continent to play a strategic role at the international level. To achieve this, South-South cooperation must be favoured to generate sufficient synergies. With synergy, African countries will have more influence in the international arena. They can actively participate in the establishment of a new international order that is looming on the horizon.

The world is about to experience profound changes that could lead to a new redistribution of the cards and a new configuration of the balance of power. Events will accelerate over the next few years. And it is time for the continent to prepare for it. Africa must not miss this rendezvous with history once again. While we are witnessing, around the world, a questioning of globalization in favour of regionalization, Africa has no choice but to go down this path.

In so doing, Africa would become a credible actor on the international level. It would exert all its weight on the course of events. It will do so successfully by following the democratic path, breaking the ties of dependence on the former colonial forces, and counting above all on the collective intelligence and the creative genius of the African peoples.