Abubakar Sani Sambo

Chairman
Ministerial Task Force on Power, Nigeria

Prof Abubakar Sani Sambo is the Chairman of the Nigerian Member Committee of the World Energy Council (WEC). He was WEC’s Vice Chair for Africa from November 2007 to October 2013. Prof Sambo was the Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria for two terms of eight years from January 2005 to December 2012. He served as the Vice-Chancellor of Abubakar Tafawa Bela-wa University from April 1995 to April 2004. In July 2011 Prof Sambo was named as the Special Adviser to the President of Nigeria on Energy. He has worked extensively on renewable energy utilisation as well as on planning energy systems in Nigeria and has published more than 200 articles in journals, conference proceedings and technical reports. Professor Sambo was the Nigerian Representative at the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) from 2009 to 2012.

He is a fellow of nine professional associations: Nigerian Academy of Science, Nigerian Academy of Engineering, Nigerian Society of Engineers, Solar Energy Society of Nigeria, Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Nigerian Association of Energy Economists, Renewable and Alternative Energy Society of Nigeria, Nigerian Institute of Management and the Energy Institute of the United Kingdom. He is the recipient of two national honours: the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) and the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON). Prof Sambo, who was duly registered by COREN in 1984 (R.2479), has a 1979 First Class Honours degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and a 1983 Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Sussex, UK, both in Mechanical Engineering. He was born in Zaria City on 31st July, 1955. He completed his primary school education at Capital School Kaduna in 1968. He is happily married and has four children.