Nigeria launches its Energy Transition Plan

The Federal government of Nigeria has officially launched its Energy Transition Plan. Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo during the virtual launch event said the country is currently engaging with partners to secure an initial US $10bn to realise its plan.

According to him, Africa’s increasing energy gaps require collaboration to take ownership of the continent’s transition pathways and the action should be decisive and urgent.

“Nigeria would need to spend US $410bn above business-as-usual spending to deliver our Transition Plan by 2060, which translates to about US $10bn per year. For Africa, the problem of energy poverty is as important as our climate ambitions. Energy use is crucial for almost every conceivable aspect of development. Wealth, health, nutrition, water, infrastructure, education, and life expectancy are significantly related to the consumption of energy per capita,” explained Osinbajo.

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Nigeria Energy Transition Plan

The Nigeria Energy Transition Plan was designed to tackle climate change and deliver SDG7 by 2030 and net-zero by 2060, while centering the provision of energy for development, industrialisation and economic growth.

In support of the Energy Transition Plan the Vice President also announced the launch of a programme aimed at solar energy providers, which will run under the Sustainable Energy For All-run Universal Energy Facility.

“The Stand-Alone Solar for Productive Use programme is a results-based finance programme specifically aimed at scaling up electricity along productive use of energy principles. The Universal Energy Facility will provide grant payments to enable solar companies to expand their operations to small and medium-sized enterprises across Nigeria, while crowding in additional private capital. between 2000 and 2020 will certainly not suffice,” said the Vice President.

“It is certainly time for decisive action, and we just cannot afford to delay. African nations are rising to the challenge. All African countries have signed the Paris Agreement and some countries, South Africa, Sudan, Angola, and Nigeria have also announced net-zero targets.”

“The current lack of power hurts livelihoods and destroys the dreams of hundreds of millions of young people. And although Africa’s current unmet energy needs are huge, future demand will be even greater due to expanding populations, urbanisation and movement into the middle class. It is clear that the continent must address its energy constraints and would require external support and policy flexibility to deliver this. Unfortunately, in the wider responses to the climate crisis, we are not seeing careful consideration and acknowledgement of Africa’s aspirations. We developed our Energy Transition Plan to engage with the rest of the world in a serious, thorough and data-backed manner. There is a clear need for African nations to engage more critically and vocally in conversations on our global climate future.

More importantly, we need to take ownership of our transition pathways and design climate-sensitive strategies that address our growth objectives. This is what Nigeria has done with our Energy Transition Plan,” said Professor Yemi Osinbajo.