President Muhammadu Buhari has revealed Nigeria’s plans to implement an energy plan aimed at decreasing electricity shortages by 2030, including powering five million houses.
The president stated this at the High-Level Dialogue on Energy on the fringes of the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York, in keeping with Nigeria’s role as a Global Theme Champion for the Energy Transition.
He said: “Nigeria’s commitment to a just transition is reflected in our ambitious Energy Compact, which includes the Government’s flagship project to electrify Five Million households and Twenty Million people using decentralized solar energy solutions. This is a major first step towards closing our energy access deficit by 2030.
“Nigeria’s commitment is also reflected in the development of our Energy Transition Plan, which was developed with the support of the UK COP26 Energy Transition Council.”
President Buhari appealed to developed countries for assistance in unlocking the funds required to advance a just and equitable energy transition for all.
He added: “The focus of our discussions on transition must now evolve how we help countries develop detailed energy transition plans and commitments to mobilize enough financing to empower countries to implement those plans.”
The president further said: “The scale of financing required for Nigeria to achieve net-zero, amounts to over $400 billion across the Nigerian economy in excess of business-as-usual spending over the next thirty years.
“This breaks down to $155 billion net spent on generation capacity, $155 billion on transmission and distribution infrastructure, $75 billion on buildings, $21 billion on industry and $12 billion on transport.”
However, the President stated that before gas is phased out, it would continue to play an important role, emphasizing that solid fuel cooking is still wreaking havoc in Africa:
He added: “As a global leader on the energy transition, it is imperative that I flag a major risk to development that stems from the current narrative around the energy transition, particularly on the role of gas and the lack of financing.
“Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan has laid out our roadmap to reach net-zero and highlights the scale of the effort required, which includes the development and integration of renewables into current grid infrastructure at tremendous scale and electrification of all sectors.
“This is challenging for any country especially a developing country. On our development objectives, gas will have a key role to play here for some years before being phased out.”
President Buhari stated that these plans must also consider providing access to energy and clean cooking solutions to individuals in Nigeria and around the world who do not currently have access, emphasizing that these plans must be implemented as soon as possible.
“Globally there are 2.6 billion people who lack access to clean cooking which is unacceptable,” adding: “even more concerning is that solid fuel cooking in Africa causes almost 490,000 premature deaths annually, making it the second-largest health risk in Africa.”
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