By Ebriku John Friday
The federal government of Nigeria has said that a lot of investments is still needed in the pathway to the global Energy Transition Plan in 2050, with the country’s economy requiring $410 billion between now and the next 30 years.
This was disclosed by the Honourable Minister of State, Power, Goddy Jedy Agba, OFR, during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) Energy Transition Council’s third Ministerial briefings.
The Minister said that for the country to achieve the Net-Zero carbon emissions in 2050, it requires the multi-billion dollars investments across the its economy in excess of business-as-usual spending over the next 30 years.
Jedy-Agba who reaffirmed federal government’s commitment to electrifying five million homes and twenty five million people using solar technology by 2023 maintained that, “gas will play a key role in ensuring a stable baseload and the flexibility of integrating renewables into the grid, before being phased out post 2030”
He discussed that the government had engaged different stakeholders including the private sector and financiers who are the only sources that can provide the funding at the scale required for clean energy transition.
“one key request from the private sector to unlock funding has been for countries like mine to ensure the right plans, policies and regulations are in place. We often speak about policies and regulations as key, it is important for these policies and regulations to be based on a broad energy sector roadmap.
“Private capital has shown an appetite to invest, and in addition to plans, policies and regulations, they have asked that donors and DFIs provide adequate risk cover to start, especially to cover forex risks and counterpart risks. This is key to unlocking local currency financing, as well as ensuring we also prioritize the most vulnerable end-users in the last mile”, he said.
While reiterating that Nigeria is advanced in developing her own energy transition plan, he however added that “it is important that United Nations technical support offers focus on helping countries develop similar energy transition plans, around which adequate policies and regulations can then be designed”.
Recall that as part of the COP26 planning process, Ministers from different countries have been meeting to discuss ahead of the conference, scheduled to hold in Glasgow, Scotland between 31st of October to 12th of November this year.
