Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has called on the United Nations to be involved in Nigeria’s effort at achieving its energy targets by providing technical assistance, capacity building, and financial support.
The minister made the call Tuesday night during a dialogue session with an international audience made up of representatives from Britain, Brazil, Pakistan, Tonga, Phillipines, Uruguay, Moldova, among others.
The Special Adviser to the Minister on Strategic Communication and Media Relations, Mr. Bolaji Tunji, made this known in a statement he issued on Thursday.
He said the event was organised by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, and the United Nations Office for Project Services, UNOPS.
Making a presentation entitled “Generating sustainable energy for development…Nigeria’s bold and ambitious vision,”, the minister disclosed that the federal government had implemented a multiple approach, designed to tackle issues across the country’s electricity supply industry value chain and set the sector on a path to recovery and prosperity.
Adelabu announced that Nigeria was committed to achieving ‘Net Zero’ by 2060 “with a short-term target under our vision 30:30:30, to attain 30GW of grid energy supply with a 30 per cent Renewable Energy mix by 2030, and a long-term goal of universal energy access.”
He said that the targets presented an opportunity for Nigeria to adopt cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions, as the country made efforts to achieve energy security and meet the demands of the country’s growing economy.
He also told his audience that as Nigeria strove to achieve its energy transition targets, it was faced with several major challenges, which included mobilization of finance for project development, inadequate technical and commercial capacity across the value chain, limited local content in products and services, and infrastructure limitations that hindered the adoption of variable renewable energy technologies on the national grid.
But to set the power sector on the recovery path, the minister said: “We have streamlined legislative and policy processes to reduce bureaucratic red tape and encourage active participation from sub-national entities, thereby fostering investment and project execution.
“We are leveraging both public and private funds to de-risk project investments and attract more substantial finance commitment, enabling larger and faster project rollout.
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“We are embracing technology and innovation to help investors identify optimal investment opportunities. We have initiated a national programme to fast-track infrastructure development aimed at building a robust, viable, and resilient grid network.
“Lastly, we are fostering strategic partnerships and collaborations with investment communities and development partners to leverage global expertise, share resources, and co-invest in the energy sector,” the minister said.
He expressed delight at the opportunity given to him to speak at the forum, which he said provided him the opportunity for exploring the challenges and opportunities that countries face in establishing and executing clean energy transition pathways.
“The very concept of this event, which seeks to identify the barriers to universal clean transition, especially in developing countries, speaks volumes about our global shared vision of energy sustainability and economic development,” he said.
