By Tony Ezimakor
Hon Sam Onuigbo, sponsor of Nigeria’s Climate Change Act and former Member of the House of Representatives, has expressed confidence that Nigeria’s march towards industrialization could benefit immensely from investment in renewable energies.
Rep. Onuigbo stated this during series of interventions he made at the 14th International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA )Assembly; the IRENA Legislators Forum; Regional Energy Transition Outlooks in Africa : Operational Workshop on Regional Scenarios; World Future Energy Summit hosted by MASDAR, all of which took place between 16-19 April, 2024, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
He noted that Nigeria has a huge energy market with over 90 million underserved people, adding that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government, in line with its Renewed Hope Agenda , has gone ahead to create enabling environments for a flourishing investments in renewable energy towards addressing this huge deficit.
He described as huge and definitive the Constitutional amendment that removed electricity from the Exclusive List to the Concurrent List and the subsequent enactment of the Electricity Act 2023 with provisions for off-grid and mini-grid generation and distribution of power, as game changers.
He further stated that the Climate Change Act with its provision for research and development on renewables, Nigeria’s Clean Cooking Policy which seeks to achieve universal clean cooking energy access by 2030, and recent provision of subsidies to support the development and the operation of privately owned and operated solar hybrid mini-grids in unserved and underserved areas courtesy of a US$750m World Bank loan facilitated under the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project, are also proofs of the country’s commitment to provide fertile grounds for the country to benefit from the global ambition of tripling renewable energy capacity by 2030 and consequently industrialize therefrom.
Accordingly, he asserts that Nigeria is presently a fertile ground for investments in renewables, and urged investors to seize the opportunity to fill the gap opening in the sector.
The Member representing the South East on the Governing Board of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) however cautioned international investors not to repeat the mistakes made by their predecessors when Nigeria opened the bid in the telecommunication sector where he said investors failed see potential to offered by the nation’s huge market and thus lost in what later became a telecom revolution.
He urged them to take maximum advantage of the opportunity this time in renewable energy both for the growth of their businesses, and that of the country.
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates was agog within the 16-20 of April with several international events focused on renewable energy investments and expansion. Investors, innovators, academics, business leaders, heads of multinationals, heads of international organisations, Members of Parliament, representatives of governments, etc., gathered during this period to exchange ideas on how to attain global commitment at COP28 to triple renewable energy by 2030 and thus boost sustainable growth.
