Govt. To Electrify 5m Households By 2030 – Buhari

The Federal Government has disclosed plans to electrify five million households and twenty million individuals through “decentralised solar energy solutions”.

Stating this was President Muhammadu Buhari, quoted by his media aide Femi Adesina, who, in a statement issued on Friday, noted that the president made the declaration at the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Buhari said, “Nigeria’s commitment to a just transition is reflected in our ambitious Energy Compact, which includes the Government’s flagship project to electrify five million households and twenty million people using decentralized solar energy solutions.

“This is a major first step towards closing our energy access deficit by 2030.

“Nigeria’s commitment is also reflected in the development of our Energy Transition Plan, which was developed with support of the UK COP26 Energy Transition Council.

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“The focus of our discussions on transition must now evolve how we help countries develop detailed energy transition plans and commitments to mobilize enough financing to empower countries to implement those plans.”

On achieving net-zero emissions, Buhari said that Nigeria would require almost $400 billion dollars.

Analysing the figure, he said, “This breaks down to US$ 155 billion net spend on generation capacity, US$ 135 billion on transmission and distribution infrastructure, US$ 75 billion on buildings, US$ 21 billion on industry and US$ 12 billion on transport.

“As a global leader on the energy transition, it is imperative that I flag a major risk to development that stems from the current narrative around the energy transition, particularly on the role of gas and the lack of financing.

“Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan has laid out our roadmap to reach net-zero and highlights the scale of the effort required, which includes the development and integration of renewables into current grid infrastructure at tremendous scale and electrification of all sectors.

“This is challenging for any country, especially a developing country. On our development objectives, gas will have a key role to play here for some years before being phased out.”