Competing Partnerships in the Energy Transition: Nigeria–Germany Green Hydrogen Cooperation versus Chinese Renewable Infrastructure Engagement in West Africa

Nigeria stands at the intersection of two external energy-partnership models shaping West Africa’s transition. The first is a rules-intensive, diplomacy-led German engagement centred on green and low-carbon hydrogen, embodied in the German–Nigerian Hydrogen Office, the draft National Hydrogen Policy, the Nigeria4H2 study and the Flare4Value programme. The second is a commercially dense Chinese engagement built on solar photovoltaic hardware, engineering-procurement-construction contracts and rising local assembly. Drawing on secondary sources from the IEA, World Bank, official German and Nigerian documents, WASCAL, Ember, ODI Global and peer-reviewed analyses, this article compares the models across strategic intent, technology mix, financing, industrial localisation and electricity-access implications. German cooperation is strong on standards, skills and long-horizon industrial policy but thin in deployed megawatts; Chinese engagement rapidly expands generation and off-grid hardware yet remains weakly linked to grid reform, skills transfer and hydrogen-ready industry. Nigeria’s electricity access reached only 62.5 per cent in 2024, among the world’s largest absolute deficits. An uncoordinated dual-track strategy risks a split system: an export-oriented hydrogen corridor for Europe and Chinese-supplied distributed solar for households and firms, leaving the national grid under-financed. Recommendations include a single inter-ministerial partnership dashboard, localisation conditions on European finance and Chinese imports, and flare-gas-to-hydrogen pilots as a bridge from the oil-and-gas incumbent to a renewable future.