By Fatima Saka
The Nigerian government has vowed to collaborate with other West African countries to pursue energy transition projects.
Vice President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo made the statement on Monday in Abuja while declaring open the two-day International Energy Transition Week, Nigeria-ECOWAS Sustainable Energy Forum (ESEF) 2022.
With the theme, “Achieving Sustainable Energy Targets in the ECOWAS Region: Moving from Resilience to Transition”
Osinbajo, who was represented by the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, restated the call on developed countries to bridge the disparity in energy investments.
He said, “Of the $2.8 trillion invested in renewable energy from 2000 to 2020, only about 2%, or $60 billion, came to Africa.
“The West African region received just 7% of that, about USD4 billion. To reach our goals, sufficient capital must be made available in the region, and we must do our part in creating the enabling environment for these funds.
“This is a crucial time for us to collaborate as neighbours and work interdependently, leveraging on our cooperation and abundant energy resources to secure for ourselves and our children a sustainable energy market for the socio-economic development of the region.
“In particular, we must work together on strategies and reforms needed to crowd in the investments required for real and impactful projects and progress on the ground. Lack of access to finance remains the biggest challenge for accelerating action on energy access and climate goals in Africa.”
Osinbajo recalled that at COP26, in Glasgow, President Muhammadu Buhari made a commitment on behalf of Nigeria to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060.
“The realisation of this goal depends on the implementation of our nation’s Energy Transition Plan (ETP) which was recently launched by this administration,” he added.
The Ambassador of Spain to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Juan Ignacio Sell, said energy poverty and security needed to be addressed to achieve sustainable energy transition.
“The EU is planning to allocate 600 million euros to the sustainable energy sector in West Africa alone,” he said.
