By Obas Esiedesa
The CEO of Clean Technology Hub, Ifeoma Malo has explained that the simplified Guides to Nigeria’s Energy Access Policies will help investors, policy makers and communities make informed decisions quicker.
Malo who spoke in Abuja during a public presentation last week, explained that the guides summarized almost 50,000 pages of documents into 1,500 pages with focus on the policies’ highlights, key positions and financial incentives which can help people make credible decisions around renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The Simplified Guides to Nigeria’s Energy Access Policies was compiled by Clean Tech Incubation and Acceleration Foundation, with support from All On.
Speaking on the target set by government to have 10,000 mini-grids by 2022, Malo said there has been a huge improvement in the mini-grid subsector in past few years, stressing that “before 2017/2016, the mini-grid sector was struggling, but since that target was put in place, what that did was catalyse a lot of financiers.
“We have seen a lot of foreign companies and more local mini-grid companies come into the sector”, she added.
She however pointed out that for the 10,000 mini-grid target to be achieved within the period, the government needs to review the taxes for the sector, especially the 10 percent duty on imported renewable energy equipment.
Speaking during a panel section, Acting Director, Renewable and Rural Power Access, Federal Ministry of Power, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo disclosed that government plans to achieve 30,000 Megawatts of power by the year 2030 with renewable energy sources accounting for 30 percent of total.
Yabo noted that government policies on mini-grid and renewable energy sources have led to substantial investments in the sector.
“We have had N1.7 billion of private investments into the mini-grid space. It may look small but it has potentials for expansion. At the same time, the policy has attracted donor funding for the off-grid to the tune N1.9 billion”, he explained.
He continued: “Few years back we did not have any space where people can see the intentions of government in terms of growth but courtesy these policies we have a Vision 30:30:30, which is a vision to have 30,000MW by 2030 with 30 percent from renewable”.
But the Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), Dr. Joy Ogaji said focus should be on how to deploy the available 13,000MW capacity, rather than on new targets.
“Who are we fooling”, she asked, “We have over 13,000MW on-grid installed capacity and out of that on the average from 2013 to end of 2019, we have utilized 3,500MW.
“It is impossible for me (GenCos) to add renewable to what is already sitting and building up in my books as debts. No business would do that”.
She pointed out that in “any market, capacity utilisation is a measure to check efficiency in production”, arguing that “if my capacity has not been utilised, there is no incentives for me to increase.
“However, the power generating plants all have expansion capacity”, she added.
