The energy ecosystem of the country has, without doubt, remained largely traditional. Many countries in the world are embracing greener alternatives to energy in the form of renewable and clean energy such as solar. With some efforts from different quarters, change is slowly but surely creeping into the sector and the future of energy will be looking greener than ever.
The President, Women in Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (WREAN) and the National Co-Coordinator of The Association of Nigerian Women Business Network Nigeria (ANWBNN), Chief (Mrs.) Anita Nana Okuribido, shared her views on clean energy during the just concluded Future EnergyConference and Expo, stating that “the future energy conference has always been a rallying point for investors and stakeholders to come network and discuss the priority issues that affect the green economy of this country. Talking about recapitalisation and all the investments, we know the high cost of renewable energy components, we all know how expensive it is, and we need to look into how we can enable the common man to afford electricity through renewable energy components because there is no way we can do away with renewable energy. The United Nations have told us that in the turn of the millennium, fossil fuel will go extinct and when these fossil fuels we depend on do go extinct we have to fall back to renewable energy value chain which is actually the best for us”.
The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhay Thakur during the opening keynote speaking on the long term possibilities of the co-operation between India and Nigeria as the terrain challenges and vast number of ethnic groups are similar to that present in Nigeria, he stated that “Nigeria needs to leverage the cooperation with India to improve the energy sector as India currently distributes 40x more electricity and at least at half the cost in Nigeria”. His address also emphasized that the challenges in the Nigerian power sector are not a case of quantity but of quality as it regards some components of the power distribution process. To further consolidate the level of competency and efficiency in the Indian power ecosystem the Regional Director Indian Chamber of Commerce, Debmalya Banerjee stated that “600 million villages in India are electrified and that the aim of the partnership and contribution of India to Nigeria through the High Commissioner Abhay Thakur will engender power reforms for Nigeria”.
In terms of capacity building and inculcating the need for practical experience in addition to theories, four students at different levels emerged as winners during one of the Knowledge Hub programs at the conference. These students were asked to identify and rectify two problems in an electrical component setup. One of the challenges identified was later revealed to be with the battery where the charge controller was faulty and this particular fault could be solved with a continuity test and a voltage reading in addition to the current reading. In first place was Mr Awonusi Oluwatobi who is an Electrical/Electronics post-graduate student at the University of Lagos and his prize was a material and training grant worth 2 million naira. The other winners were Mr Abidakun in 2nd place, Mr Kingsley in 3rd place, and MrChidozie a 300Level chemical engineering student at Unilag, who also went away with training grants and certificates.
The two-day event held in Lagos and in attendance were local and international energy sector stakeholders, exhibitors of energy-related products, delegates, and pressmen.
