By Olamide Francis
In its bid to advance the usage of renewable energy in Nigeria, the European Union in collaboration with the German government have trained Over 185 participants from the Nigerian Finance Training Programme on Solar Energy and Energy Efficiency.
The training which took place from August to November 2020 is a scholarship programme facilitated by the European Union (EU) and the German Government which aims to impart knowledge on financing clean energy projects and how to make use of international climate finance instruments.
In a remark, Katrine Thomsen, Head of Section Economic Cooperation and Energy of the Delegation of the European Union to Nigeria and ECOWAS, says renewable energy offers significant untapped cost-saving and business opportunities to the Nigerian economy.
Speaking further, Thomsen noted that, “However, these technologies and measures typically require high upfront investments, and access to finance for such investments is currently limited. This is mostly due to the unfamiliarity of numerous stakeholders with renewable energy and energy efficiency applications, which affects the perceived risk of investments in these technologies. The information provided during the training programme should help to reduce this perceived risk and scale up investments in the clean energy sector.
“The Solar Energy and Energy Efficiency Training taught project developers to develop bankable project proposals that are suitable for funding trained finance institutions to conduct due diligence, and built the capacity of relevant Government agencies to support the development and implementation of financing schemes for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Nigeria.”
For eight weeks of the training, the participants completed five online courses and attended ten webinars on topics ranging from energy efficiency in buildings to case studies focused on the Nigerian context.
This was followed by a one-day virtual live seminar in November, which included practical sessions on the viability of renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, bankable projects, and financing schemes. In total, 119 participants completed the training successfully.
This training offered a unique capacity building and business development opportunity, designed specifically for Nigerian professionals and decision-makers in finance institutions, private companies developing renewable energy and energy efficiency projects, and relevant MDAs.
The training is part of the “Access to Finance for Upscaling RE and EE for Buildings and Industries in Nigeria” project of the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP), a technical assistance programme, co-funded by the EU and the German Government, and implemented by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Power.
NESP offered scholarships to qualified participants of the training conducted by the Renewables Academy (RENAC) AG with the support of Castalia.
“Following the success of the training and high level of interest from stakeholders, NESP plans to organise subsequently training throughout 2021”, Duke Benjamin, Head of NESP said
