Mohammed Shosanya
Nigeria needs critical rapprochement and behavioural change towards renewable energy and energy efficiency in the country,Professor Magnus Onuoha, President of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Associations (Alliance) REEEA,has said.
The change,he said,should come not just as a policy document but as an implementable system for both domestic, rural, urban, commercial and industrial development
Onouha,who spoke during at the inauguration of new elected members of the governing Council, explained that the move became necessary as the fuel subsidy removal, the Electricity Act recently signed into law, rising cost of energy dominant systems and measures
He hinted that the organization received so many solution driven recommendations, advisory, from which it was able to come up with several areas of focus which would serve as the fulcrum of the Governing Council for the next three years.
He said,among these include funding more projects with local naira and leveraging to enable growth of community-based developers for off-grid communities;technical assistance and capacity building accelerator programs for renewable energy entrepreneurs and developers; Revenue assurances to support and fund large scale renewable energy projects;payment mechanisms to support clean energy expansion and Policy recommendation to build social acceptance for Nigeria to use natural gas as a transition fuel.
Others are leveraging on the Electricity Act recently passed into law- engaging the states for integrated electricity within their states to generate power that satisfies the needs of the state;accelerating investment in the emerging green hydrogen space; electric mobility solutions – vehicles,bikes, bicycles, tricycles and Development of carbon market opportunities and revenue arising therefrom.
He noted that in order to support to the solutions, the association, shall be engaging different levels of professionals: including “The Federal and State Governments; Development Partners, Resellers in the Informal Sectors: such as those in Alaba, the National finance system: The Ministry of Finance, Nigeria Customs Service, even the Immigration Service, the traditional power systems: Generation companies, distribution companies, transmission company of Nigeria.
Others levels of collaboration, the President said include: “The traditional power systems: Generation companies, distribution companies, transmission company of Nigeria.
He added:”A major critical component of all these solutions, I can’t emphasize enough is “capacity building / training”
Without the requisite capacity, we can not build indigenous expertise and sustain growth.
“We must develop the capacity to be developers, installers, advocates and policy formulators. If we do not have capacity, we shall be at the mercy of others. With enough capacity, we can create green jobs, create employment, create entrepreneurs and evolve women and youth empowerment.
“But it must be the right sort of capacity built on strenuously developed experience, curriculum and dynamic content. Beyond installation and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies, there are millions of ancillary jobs/efforts that accrue from there”.