Power for All, an International Agency canvassing for access to electricity in Nigeria, has called for improved collaboration with multi-lateral organisations to develop off-grid renewable electricity in the country.
The Campaign Director of the agency in Nigeria, Ify Malo, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to her, government at all levels needed to intensify partnership with other willing off-grid renewable developing establishments to accelerate access to electricity in the country.
She said that many foreign companies which had signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with government were practically developing projects designed to increased off-grid renewable electricity in various parts of the country.
She said it was a wrong perception that the MoU between government and some multi-laterals to develop electricity were not being implemented.
“There are several ongoing renewable energy projects and programmes across numerous rural and urban communities in Nigeria.
“Some are pilot programmes to test the market viability of such technologies; others are done on a development or aid basis, especially those targeted at rebuilding the North-Eastern part of the country.
“While several are being run successfully as commercial ventures, some of these projects have existed for over 20 years.
“Several of them have been championed and supported by multi-laterals and donor agencies like GIZ, DFID, Solar Nigeria, USAID, Winrock, European Union, AFD, World Bank/IFC, AfDB, and the Catholic Relief Services“.
She said that some State Governments and local communities were also working with the multi-laterals on decentralised renewable energy project to solve Nigeria’s electricity deficit.
Malo said that decentralised renewable energy products were changing global energy landscape, noting that the last five years had witnessed an upsurge in renewable technologies in the world.
“We have seen huge investor interest year on year with the sector raising nearly 500 million dollars investment to date.
“We are seeing these technologies moving from being considered alternative energy sources to becoming main-stream and creating huge impacts across the development spectrum.
“We have seen an increase in investment in distributed renewable energy solutions, a 90 million dollar investment in off-grid Nigerian solar company Nova Lumos being the latest announced this month.“
She said that decentralised renewable, including stand alone systems, mini-grids and solar irrigation were providing energy for production companies and for households.
She said it was very important for government at all levels to create enabling situation for foreign companies to invest massively into renewable energy development in Nigeria.
According to her, there exist a vast market opportunity, as almost 100 million people live without centralised grid access in Nigeria, while four in every five enterprises use diesel generators.
“It is great that many are considering this sub-sector as a viable path to increasing our electrification level in Nigeria,“ Malo said. (NAN)