By Ajibola Olarinoye,
The intimation made by The Nigeria Association of Energy Economists (NAEE) in late 2015 that about 75% of 170 million population of Nigeria lack access to electricity is very shocking, considering the great economic potentials Nigeria is resonated with.
The National President of NAEE, Professor WumiIledare, while briefing journalists in Abuja during the occasion of 2015 World Energy day lamented that despite the huge economic and natural potential of the country, majority of Nigerians still lack access to electricity while those who have accessibility still battle with the predicament of availability and quality.
“Nigeria has vast and varied energy resources, both renewable and non-renewable resources. The nation is also the largest economy in Africa with a GDP (gross domestic product) of about $531.8 billion according to the World Bank, yet the nation still faces serious energy poverty issues, with energy supply falling short of energy demand,” Iledare said
The don said further: “Using electricity as an example, less than 25 per cent of the total population of over 170 million has access to regular electricity. The remaining 75 per cent make do with little or no electricity although 45 per cent of the population is connected to the national grid.”
The reason for this plight is writ large in the sense that about 70% of Nigerians are rural dwellers where most of the communities are not connected to the national grid and this pose great embarrassment to the image of Nigeria which is the largest economy in Africa and a country regarded as the giant of Africa.
Off grid technology is believed to be the best method of proffering solution to the problems of power supply in the rural areas. The technical words “Off-Grid Technology” means not connected to the national grid. Off-grid technology is commonly used for small communities and villages.
Examples of Off-Grid technology are solar energy and biomass. Biomass is a biological material that emanates from living organisms like plants that has the technical capabilities of serving both off-grid and on-grid systems. However, it is most useful for the rural areas and small communities.
There is no doubt that renewable technology is a long haul.However, many countries, due to their zeal and determination, effectively harnessed their resources towards it and got out of the woods.
China and Brazil are examples of country that have taken advantage of their natural resources to revolutionize their power sector by tapping into the renewable technology system. In 2013, China invested 56.3 billion dollars on this technology and the results were very encouraging. Their renewable technology was focused on power and this alone created 1.6 million jobs.
Due to extensive research and political will, Brazil recorded a tremendous success in biofuel industry. The country spends about 30 billion dollars every year on sugar cane industry to produce bio-fuel. The positive effects on this project on the Brazilian economy are immense as it created millions of jobs for the rural dwellers.It also improved the power generation of the country, most especially for the rural areas. For example, 27 billion litres of biofuel was generated in 2015.
Despite the fact that biomass is in large quantities in Nigeria, little or nothing is done to harness it and other renewable energy systems in Nigeria. Production of renewable energy system in Nigeria smacks of poor funding, poor research, lack of political will and corruption. That largely explains why majority of Nigerians still lack access to electricity.
In a bold move to ameliorate the problem of rural electrification, the Nigerian government in 2005 established the Rural Electrification Agency, a product of ESPRA ACT of 2005 to promote rural electrification in Nigeria. The agency was closed down in 2009 when monumental corruption was allegedly discovered. It is noteworthy that this agency achieved little or nothing before it was closed down.
The agency was re-opened in 2011 and one Mr Kenneth Achugboas the Chief Executive. It should be noted that the government failed to make a provision for the agency in 2012 budget.
In 2013, when provision was made for it in the budget, a meagre share of 6,456,217,247 was allocated to the agency out of the total sum of 74,262,379,894 budgets for the power ministry representing 8.9% of the total power budget.
Considering the level accessibility of some other developing countries and compared to that of Nigeria, it should serve as a wake-up call for policy makers in Nigeria to arrest the situation inaccessibility. For example: Philippineshas 70.2% accessibility, Nepal (76.3%), Nicaragua (77.7%). Examples of countries that are on the ace of achieving 100% accessibility are: Libya (99.8%), Morocco (98.9%), Mauritius (99.4%).
On the effective methods that need to be taken in order to have an efficient off-grid technology and increase the level of accessibility of electricity in Nigeria, in a research work titled “Challenges of Sustaining Off-grid Power Generation in Nigerian Rural communities” published in African Journal of Engineering Research and written by Elusakin Julius, AjideOlufemi and DijiChuks offers some useful solutions to this problems, they are:
(1) Planning: The onus of proper planning of electrifying rural communities is on the government. It can be decentralized along Federal, State and Local Governments in Nigeria. At the planning stage, government at all levels should ensure that their planning cover the life span of the purpose of the project so as to achieve its sustainability. To achieve this, the planning committee should be set up for each community where the proposed Off-Grid project is to be used. The composition of the membership of the committee should cut across all the stake holders (Government, NGOs, technical personnel and community leaders).
(2) Government passion for technology development: Government should invest in technology through setting up power institutions. Nigeria needs to learn from countries such as China. Solar Energy in China has grown tremendously. China currently boasts of over 400 photovoltaic (PV) companies. Easy access to bank loans and government subsidies attracted investors to China power industry. The companies who specialize in solar, wind, thermal and hydro that are mostly used for off-grid power generation should be encouraged to invest in Nigeria.
(3) Subsidy of the tariff and government commitment to the sustainability: The planners will need to find answers for the cost of maintaining the operation of the grid. The economic viability of the community should determine the percentage of the government subsidy for such community. If the project is totally based on subsidy, government or international assistance would be responsible for the funding of the operations of the grid. Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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