The Minister of State, Power, Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba has said Nigeria would require $4 billion (about N1.525 trillion) annually to increase access to clean and renewable energy to boost the supply of electricity to consumers in Nigeria.
The minister spoke recently during a virtual global power sector players’ conference presided over by the United Nations Secretary General, His Excellency Antonio Guternes.
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A statement from his office said, Mr Agba outlined the challenges as well as achievements recorded in the power sector in the last five years by President Muhammadu Buhari led administration.
The minister told the United Nations and officials of the participating countries that the Nigerian government is demonstrating its commitment especially with the ongoing five million solar home system connection programme under the COVID-19 recovery strategy tagged, Economic Sustainability Programme (ESP).
’85 million households targeted’
The minister called on the stakeholders to support the ESP and other renewable energy programmes of Nigeria, noting that 85m households are targeted to benefit from the clean and renewable energy sources, identified to be low in carbon emission.
The UN scribe, Mr Antonio Guternes assured continuous support to Nigeria in the power sector, in response to the position paper presented by the minister of state for power who represented the Nigerian government at the conference.
President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said the bank will continue to support public private initiative to promote the power sector.
The conference chatted a way forward as the UN promised to give the necessary support to Nigeria to explore other sources of energy to achieve steady and adequate supply of electricity to consumers in Nigeria.
