The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, on Tuesday, called for technological support from the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), to address the power and clean energy needs of the nation.
Aliyu, represented by his Special Adviser, Technical Services, Kingsley Odoh, made the call while delivering a keynote at the first Ademola Isaac Olorunfemi Colloquium in Lagos.
The event was organized by the Ikeja Branch of NSE as part of activities to mark its 2022 Engineering Week, in honour of Olorunfemi, a former President of the Society.
Speaking on the topic: “Power and Energy Insufficiency in Nigeria – Way Forward”, the minister said Nigeria was working towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 7.
He said the expertise of engineers was needed towards achieving Goal 7 which focused on Affordable, Reliable, Sustainable, and Modem Energy for all.
“May I challenge and at the same time encourage the engineering community to join hands with us to develop sustainable solutions that will add value to the Green Growth revolution, tailor-made for Nigeria.
“The way forward must gravitate towards Green Energy Technologies which we already know will play a major role in our drive towards increasing our energy mix.
“We welcome the Nigerian Society of Engineers to partner with the government as we evolve and explore the potential of Green Energy Technologies to improve our Energy mixes across our Energy sources, some of which are Solar, Wind, Hydro Power, Geo Thermal, just to mention a few.
“This proposed partnership with NSE looks forward to the implementation of Green Energy Technologies that will guarantee a more resilient energy market and energy security,’’ he said.
He said access to adequate power and energy would boost the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), noting, however, that currently available power to end users was between 4,000 to 5,000MW for over 200 million Nigerians.
The minister said the collective effort was needed because of the commitment Nigeria made to achieve Net Zero in its carbon emission by the year 2060.
He listed efforts of the federal government already yielding positive results and opportunities for engineers in the energy and power value chain.
“The Net Zero Commitment we made in Glasgow will require investment, we need to invest about $410 billion on our pathway towards Net Zero. Funding this pathway will require collaboration’’, he said.
Panelists at the programme identified the generational gap in skilled manpower as one of the reasons the power sector privatization failed.
They called for infrastructure upgrade and capacity development in the nation’s power and energy value chain for Nigeria to be able to make progress.
They also urged the federal government to create enabling environment to attract investors and reduce capital flight.
President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Tasiu Gidari-Wudil, represented by Margaret Oguntala, described Isaac Olorunfemi as an expert who contributed immensely to infrastructure development in the nation.
Gidari-Wudil said infrastructure boost was important to the growth of all sectors, hence the need for NSE to tackle power and energy challenges.
He mandated the Ikeja branch of NSE to submit its communique from the colloquium to the society’s headquarters within two weeks for action.
The honouree, Olorunfemi, while also making a presentation, said the NSE would come up with about three pages on a resolution of power problems.
“We must do something, we will come here next year and we must assess what we have done,’’ he said.
Earlier, Chairman, NSE, Ikeja Branch, Olutosin Ogunmola, said he was glad to anchor the first colloquium to honour Olorunfemi for being instrumental in the completion of national projects.
Ogunmola gave a scorecard of the 29-year- old Ikeja Branch and its efforts in Research and Development as well as building a four-floor Engineering Resource Centre.