President Muhammadu Buhari said the Nigerian Government is committed to electrifying 5 million households in Nigeria under the Energy Transition Plan.
President Buhari disclosed this at the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York, highlighting Nigeria’s role as a Global Theme Champion for the Energy Transition.
“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,” Buhari told the UN General Assembly.
He added that it is a major first step towards closing Nigeria’s energy access deficit by 2030 and called for support from developed countries to unlock the finance needed to accelerate a just energy transition for all.
“Nigeria’s commitment is also reflected in the development of our Energy Transition Plan, which was developed with support of the UK COP26 Energy Transition Council.
“The focus of our discussions on transition must now involve how we help countries develop detailed energy transition plans and commitments to mobilize enough financing to empower countries to implement those plans,” President Buhari said.
He added that Nigeria’s electricity generation plan needs major financing that amounts to over US$ 400 billion over the next 30 years.
“This breaks down to US$ 155 billion net spend on generation capacity, US$ 135 billion on transmission and distribution infrastructure, US$ 75 billion on buildings, US$ 21 billion on industry and US$ 12 billion on transport.”
He highlighted the importance of Natural gas towards Nigeria’s electricity needs stating that 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,” he said.
What you should know
Recall Nairametrics reported recently that the Nigerian electricity sector, classified with gas, steam and air conditioning supply recorded a 78.16% year-on-year real GDP growth in the second quarter of 2021, by far the highest growth rate record by any sector in the review period.