FG explains policy on renewable energy

By Chris Ochayi

The Federal Government has said that the proposed National Policy on renewable energy and energy efficiency was conceived to boost electricity supply nationwide.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, said this at the stakeholders’ forum on renewable energy in Abuja, last week, adding that the proposed policy framework will drive renewable energy issues and would be well accepted internally and externally.

The Minister, who was represented by his Senior Special Assistant, Prof. Chidi Onyia, urged participants at the workshop to do all within their capacities to fast track it. He said this is a key element in government’s renewed efforts to increase and expand access to electricity by Nigerians, especially in the rural areas.

He said the power sector has been marred in the past, partly due to unnecessary emphasis on the national grid, which has been proven to be incapable to reach communities that are far flung and remote.

The new matrix is based on greater access, easy cost recovery mechanism and indeed guide with approach to ensure that more Nigerians have access to electricity.

He then urged the participants at the workshop drawn from the industry, civil society groups, Non-Governmental Organisations, and other stakeholders to brace-up to the challenge of championing a new order that will drive the nation’s power sector.

The Coordinator of the workshop and Director in-Charge at the Ministry, Mr. A. Adebisi, described the policy as a document that will push the nation far ahead of its peers on the continent. It is conceived to provide a lead and sense of direction for all actors in the nation’s electricity industry from generation to transmission and distribution.

Presidential Aide on the North-East Transformation, Prof. Soji Adelaja, an economist, earlier in his keynote address assured participants that the policy will take Nigeria into the global picture as a country serious and ready to address its power challenges.

He said that the policy is long overdue against the backdrop of the compelling need for Nigeria to harness its vast energy potential.

Adelaja said that with the abundant wind, solar and biomass in all parts of Nigeria, it has become far cheaper to explore renewable energy sources, away from the undue emphasis on the national grid.

For entrepreneurs renewable energy sources elicit mature thinking and real value for money, as investors can quickly recoup their investment from renewable energy sources, he said.

- Culled from : http://www.vanguardngr.com