Agency calls for development of renewable energy in Nigeria
Power for ALL (PFA), an international NGO, has called for the development of renewable energy markets in Nigeria. The PFA made the call in a communiqué issued by its Country Director in Nigeria, Mrs Ify Malo, and obtained by News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Wednesday.
Malo said it was important that government and major players in renewable energy intensified action to deepen development of the sector. She said in spite of government efforts; via its policies and programmes, to reduce the electricity deficit in the country, more concerted actions were required to resolve the issues.
Malo mentioned government’s signing of of agreements with solar developers in the on-grid sector and the Presidential Initiative on Rural Solar Home Lighting Systems in the off-grid sector aimed at developing the sector.
Malo said it was obvious that the grid would be unavailable to a large population for a while due to the limited electricity supply from it. She said that decentralised energy solutions were not new to Nigeria, adding that PFA had been involved in the campaign to advance decentralised renewable energy in the country since 2016.
She said that decentralised energy, using renewable sources, was the key to achieving access to quick and cheap energy. She said PFA was focused on canvassing support on building a sustainable market for renewable technologies, adding; “we advocate passionately for renewable solutions in Nigeria and around the world.
“We believe that electricity access is fundamental to the socio-economic development of the country and renewable technologies provide a clean, cost-effective, safe and very effective solution compared to conventional alternatives“. She said Nigeria was poised to achieve and possibly excel in its Distributive Renewable Energy (DRE) target through stronger private sector participation in driving the policies on renewable energy.
According to Malo, Nigeria has the largest DRE market potential in Africa. She called for partnership with the private sector to attract finance and pledged that the agency will continue to work closely with renewable energy associations to overcome the electricity challenge.
