Monday, 28 November saw the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo advocating for clean energy access to sub Saharan African countries where he said that 19 of the 20 countries with the lowest clean cooking access rates are in Africa. He said this during his recent visit to Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.
In his speech, Prof. Osinbajo said the poor and vulnerable in developing economies are the first to suffer and worst hit by climate change effects with already having between 5 and 15% smaller economies compared to the rest of the world because of climate change as reported by African Development Bank (AfDB) Group.
Osinbajo noted that “Developing economies must have universal energy access at levels sufficient for dignified livelihoods and economic growth.”
In a similar fashion, the Nigerian government has an energy transition plan with aim of lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and driving economic growth, bringing modern energy services to the country’s entire population, and managing the expected long-term job loss in the oil sector due to the reduced global fossil-fuel demand.
Although the government has a plan and the vice president is outside the shores of the continent advocating for funds for clean energy there is no direction on how the plan will be hatched and with the COP27 held on the continent shores ended with a silence on eradicating the use of fossil fuels, it posses greater threat to achieving clean energy especially with the current fuel crisis battling the country.
Sterling Bank Plc and Stears Data in a report titled: Powering Nigeria: How solar energy can become a sustainable electricity alternative, advocated the adoption of renewable energy as a viable solution to complement domestic and commercial supply.
The report which is divided into four main parts include: Nigeria’s electricity problem; the impact of Nigeria’s problem; the case for solar energy in Nigeria; limitations to solar adoption in Nigeria; enabling Nigeria’s energy market.
The report showed that despite the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity industry, the country still has one of the lowest electrification rates in the world as 43% of its population have no access to grid electricity, an indication that 85 million Nigerians are not connected to – and cannot receive electricity from – the Nigerian transmission grid.
The report in a comparative electrification rate analysis noted that Ghana has electrification rate of 84%, Kenya 70%, South Africa 85%, sub-Saharan Africa 47%, India 98%, Europe 100%, global 90% and Nigeria 55%. It noted that while Nigeria’s electrification rate is above the sub-Saharan Africa regional average of 47%.
“However, unbundling NEPA into specialised, privately owned companies left the state company’s legacy of deteriorating infrastructure, energy losses, energy theft and non-cost reflective tariffs in the sector intact. And while the new structure was intended to address these problems, underlying issues have kept the sector in the same spot—or moved it backwards as some might argue the Nigerian electricity sector is stuck in an unproductive cycle,” the report stated.
The report also noted that a quarter of the power generated by the grid electricity while over 40% of the Nigerian household own generators “an estimated $500 million between 2015 and 2019, is higher than the proposed capital expenditure in Nigeria’s 2022 budget.” Also, the cost of fueling these generators cost $14 billion as estimated by African Development Bank (AfDB).
“Beyond the financial implications, there are significant environmental impacts that the prevalence of generators causes. Their use is associated with air and noise pollution, which have significant long-term impacts causing respiratory illness, death, and hearing loss.
“Between 2008 and 2014, 10,000 deaths have been caused by generator fumes in Nigeria. Based on the current trajectory, greenhouse gas emissions are expected to rise from 11.9 million tons to 17.1 million by 2030 from generator usage alone, if nothing changes.”
In line with the Paris agreement, the Federal Government of Nigeria set the ambitious goal to reduce greenhouse gases by 45 per cent by 2030, the report suggested renewable energy such as solar energy to the rescue.
“Although there are a number of renewable energy solutions available, solar energy is the most suitable off-grid solution to explore for Nigeria due to the abundance of the natural resource, the long-term relative affordability, and the modularity of solar energy solutions in providing options for all levels of consumption,” the report noted.
According to a research article published in Journal of Jiaotong University, there is a huge renewable potential found in Nigeria which is yet to be explored. The heavy reliance on fossil fuels such as crude oil for its energy production has made it a top contributor to greenhouse gases up to 1.01 % of global emissions.
Despite the numerous advantage of easing the pains of Nigerians over the heavy reliance on fossil fuels, Patrick Ilo, Managing director, Gennex Technologies has said the industry is dealing with untrained solar installers and sub-standard equipment.
“One of the major challenges confronting our sectors is how to properly size and design solar solutions to make them more cost-effective and at the same time durable. The entire industry is not helped by the proliferation of inexperienced and unqualified solar installers, who advise commercial, industrial and even residential customers on solutions design and sizing, and choice of inputs.
“The industry is still grappling with the challenge of sub-standard inputs and components, which has the capacity to erode the confidence of customers in their journey to transition to renewable energy. The industry is also grappling with how to ensure that commercial and Industrial customers, as well as other end users, have access to innovative financial packages to assist them in the uptake of solar solutions,” Ilo noted.
If these challenges are resolved, Nigerians are going to enjoy access to clean energy. This will give two major advantages to the country because both the economy and environment will receive a vigorous boost.
