Kaduna (Nigeria) – Nigeria has assured stakeholders in the energy sector that it will soon fully harness its vast solar energy potentials, as it help to correct the imbalance in its energy mix which skewed in favour of thermal plants.
Permanent Secretary (Power), Godknows Igali, stated this at the launch of Nigeria’s National Renewable Energy Plan, Energy Efficiency Action Plan and the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Action Agenda.
He said these policies have been fashioned under the auspices of the Inter-Ministerial Committee drawn from the agencies like, Environment, National Planning, Finance, Energy Commission, Standard Organization of Nigeria, while donor agencies like European Union, German, International Donor Agency – GIZ have provided facilitation which drew the template for rural electrification projects that is centred on sustainability.
Igali decried a situation where rural electrification projects were hitherto conceived on use of fuel and diesel run generators, describing the practice as non-sustainable, hence depriving the rural areas of access to electricity.
Rural communities cannot benefit from electricity in storing of vaccines and drugs that are used in their Health Centres because of no fuel or money to buy diesel, in most cases.
The current Administration has enunciated its plan to use electricity in cross cutting manner as to impact positively the lives of rural folks through enhanced rural economy.
“We are making steady progress, for the first time in many years, we have experienced steady supply, thanks to no incidence of vandalism. A lot of work is still needed to be done, as we have been challenged by President Muhammadu Buhari.” He said
Looking ahead, the Permanent Secretary expressed his optimism in the direction the power sector is moving, which has been aptly captioned in the theme of the workshop “Improving Energy Access in Nigeria” he said the future is bright, stressing that the importance of this platform is in tandem with our national objective of making more power available to Nigerians.
On the expected support from State Governors, the Permanent Secretary said that Governors should facilitate access to land as building of solar plant which is the future of increased supply would require large expand of land, he urged to facilitate easy access to land for power related projects.
We must reverse the ugly trend of dark images of Africa as shown on the satellite, we must grow and have higher per capita of access to electricity, as it is a reflection of our socio-economic development and growth, so power sector remains the nucleus of envisaged social change.
Earlier, Director, Renewable Energy Desk at the Ministry, Abayomi Adebisi, has noted that these policies and initiatives now condense into one, is aimed at launching the country on the path of achieving robust energy mix, so as to put Nigeria on track of happenings in the region and globally.
He said what the National Renewable Energy and Efficiency policy has done is to provide a single document frame work which all stakeholders can own, as it would form the barometer that will show time line and action path in the nation’s quest for greater access to electricity.
Speaking on behalf of all donor agencies, Daniel Warner of GIZ, commended the direction of policy emanating from the power sector that has considered it expedient to include private sector, he pledged the support of donor agencies for renewable energy and efficiency policy.
