President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Engr. Mansur Ahmed has identified energy use and its availability as very crucial to the success of the manufacturing sector as it is in many other economic activities.
He however lamented that the poor state of energy services in Nigeria has been a major factor that has for many years constrained the performance of the manufacturing sector.
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Mansur who spoke at the second Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance (SUNREF) Nigeria Investor Conference in Lagos maintained that manufacturers need more power to drive their operations; as such, any development that will help to improve the availability and quality of energy, as well as its efficiency, is most welcomed.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo who also spoke at the event stressed that the theme of the conference was in tandem with the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari on sustainable energy for all action agenda and the national renewable action plan among other policies contained in vision 30:30:30.
Adeniyi who was represented by Mr John Opaluwa, a Deputy Director at the Ministry added that the programmes and policies are aimed at ensuring the increase of off-grid power capacity from the current level of about 5gigawatt to 30gigawatt by the year 2030 with at least 30percent of the capacities coming from renewable energy technology.
At the conference, manufacturers were encouraged to take advantage of the SUNREF funding facility, which is composed of a €60 million ($70m) low-cost debt financing, a €9.5m ($11m) grant facility and technical assistance provided to partner banks and project developers.
