ABUJA, Nigeria — As the sun blazes down in Nigeria's capital Abuja, Ahmed Bukar turns on his home air conditioner to a blast of hot air. The charging valve on the outside unit is leaking out the cooling gas that the appliance runs on. A technician had recently helped him refill the air conditioner with gas, but he didn’t test for possible leaks.
“I was not taught that; I only release it into the air,” said Braimoh, who originally specialized in electrical wiring of buildings before fixing air conditioners to increase his income options. He received patchy training that did not include the required safety standards for handling refrigerants.
Another HFC, R-32, is 675 times more potent than CO2, lasts about five years in the atmosphere, and is more energy-efficient. But it is just “marginally” in the African market, Ajeigbe said. The regulations require technicians handling refrigerants and cooling appliances to obtain a license, but that is not enforced, technicians told AP, leaving space for environmentally unsafe practices.
“It worries me there is not enough training and existing regulations are not enforced,” Ajeigbe, manager at Samsung, said. But he said enforcing the import ban on banned gases and the appliances that use them would make a difference.