President Muhammadu Buhari said again on Tuesday in Washington, USA, that the Nigerian government is determined to reach its goal of 30 Gigawatts of energy by 2030.
This is what the President said during a panel on “Just Energy Transition” at the US-Africa Leaders Summit, which is taking place in the American city right now. He used the chance to talk about the Energy Transition Plan that his administration is working on to deal with the problems caused by climate change.
President Buhari said, “As part of the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy, we set the vision 30:30:30, which aims to reach 30GW of electricity by 2030 with renewable energy making up 30% of the mix.” Last year, Nigeria was the first African country to make a detailed Energy Transition Plan to deal with energy poverty, climate change, and SDG7 by 2030 and net-zero by 2060.
“At the beginning of this year, our Federal Executive Council approved the plan and made it a national policy. As part of the plan, we want to stop using gasoline and diesel generators completely by 2060. This means that we need to use renewables, especially solar, on a scale that has never been seen before. For example, the Energy Transition Plan says that we need to use 5.3 GW of solar power every year until 2060 to reach our goals.
The President said that the Nigerian government has started a number of reforms that make it one of the best in Africa. These reforms include rules for mini-grids and adding renewable energy to the national grid. He talked about some of the changes that have made Nigeria’s energy sector better.
“Because of our aggressive reforms in the power sector, tariffs in the power sector now reflect costs for the first time since privatization. As part of the Nigeria Electrification Project, solar mini-grids and solar stand-alone systems have helped more than 4 million people get electricity. Regarding hydropower, the Zungeru hydropower project is almost finished and will add 700MW to the grid.
The Nigerian leader also said that the government has put a lot of effort into making the vision a reality. However, he said that to reach the goals, “considerable financial and technical support” is needed.
“For example, our analysis shows that the Energy Transition Plan will cost $1.9 trillion from now until 2060. This is $410 billion more than what would be spent if business as usual continued. This need for more money means that $10 billion needs to be invested every year. From 2000 to 2020, only $3 billion a year was put into renewable energy in Africa as a whole.
“As a result, the $10 billion per year goal of our Energy Transition Plan is a big increase from the amount of money being invested now, and we need help from the U.S. to get the money we need. Even though stability and governance have gotten a lot better in African countries, it is important to keep in mind that the cost of financing and the perceived risk of investing remain much higher than in developed economies. Nigeria and Africa as a whole need capital-led investments with low interest rates and tax breaks for the clean energy market to grow.
“Furthermore, we think that the Nigeria Energy Transition Plan and the net-zero compliant investment pipeline we have made are perfect for a fair energy transition partnership like the one offered to South Africa and, more recently, Indonesia. Nigeria also wants the US to help it get on the G7’s list of climate partnerships so that it can work with the US to make a “Just Energy Transition Partnership.”
President Buhari also asked US businesspeople and the rest of the world to “take advantage of the innovations and potential returns in our huge market, which hasn’t been fully exploited yet.”