The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation has been implementing a project titled ‘mini-grids based on renewable energy to augment rural electrification’ with the objective of promoting renewable energy as an alternative to diesel-based energy generation systems.
It is important for me to mention that UNIDO is a specialised agency of the United Nations which promotes inclusive and sustainable industrialisation in developing countries and economies in transition. UNIDO’s activities are tailored towards developing green industries that are resource-efficient and protective of the natural environment and human health.
The target at the end of the day is to have a win-win situation. We currently have a situation where there are resources untapped in the sugar industry and in as much as the sugar industry is going about their business to manufacture sugar and meet their demands in the Nigeria economy, we want to bring to the fore, the importance of the energy that can be generated within that sector which can contribute to the total energy supply in the country.
The development partners and stakeholders will take on the outcome of this study so that it doesn’t just end at the workshop today so if you have some estimated capicity in the sugar industry in Nigeria, it will be very very important to go a step further to movement to actually developing the biomass energy in that sector for Nigerian use.Yes, our study will say something about that. There’s no challenge with technology because you need to know that we’re not reinventing any wheel anywhere.
We are not working in isolation. You need to know that the UN is not a parellel government, what the UN does is to support the Nigerian government and the way it works is that, if you look at the composition of the stakeholders or participants in this workshop, we have brought people from all areas of the energy sector in Nigeria. We have the NERC, we have the NMPC.
Remember also that I made mention that we are implementing a country programme that will end in 2022 but we have secured the executive boards approval meaning that we will continue to work within the renewable energy space in Nigeria even beyond 2022.GF Global Environment Facility is providing funding for this project. I cannot say the exact amount but the total project funds from GF is over two million dollars even as this is the last lap with what we are doing in the project, supporting the 1.