Of course, bitcoin produced domestically in Nigeria would be good for improving access to dollars, even if Nigeria were to have mutliple massive mining farms, the value of those bitcoin mined would be just a fraction of the country's need. In other words, Nigeria's inflationary crisis is a problem too large for bitcoin mining to be the answer. But it certainly wouldn't hurt!

What this article points out is that there is a large potential for additional hydroelectric (a renewable energy) capacity to be built, and a large population and economy to consume that electricity (which is currently supplied, mostly from thermal sources).

So bitcoin mining could be what gives some of those projects the subsidy needed to justify construction.

Mining on solar alone is concept that simply doesn't work, economically. Mining rigs need to run ~24/7 to justify the capital expenditure. And there's likely not much available power from other renewable sources the remaining hours of the day.

What the article didn't address was how Exxon is interested in mining on natural gas in Nigeria, and how the counter is a very large oil and gas producer. Many of these oil wells are also either venting waste gas or flaring it. Bitcoin mining on flare gas has become an industry of its own in parts of Texas and Canada, and soon elsewhere in the world (e.g., Russia which just announced plans to mine using gas from a gas producer). Not only does mining on this gas produce revenue, it is far better than venting the gas, and combusting the gas in an engine is even "cleaner" than flaring the gas.

But the last 18 months or so has seen the most profitable period for bitcoin mining in nearly a decade, and that has recently ended. The bottom line is that the cost of electricity once again becomes the primary driver for where bitcoin mining occurs. Today even many of the large commercial miners already paying the lowest prices per kWh globally are struggling (as evidenced by the selloff in bitcoin mining stocks), so adding further capacity may be a particularly risky endeavor until confidence of a bitcoin exchange rate rebound increases.