Oil & Gas
By Anthony Isibor
GABRIEL Aduda, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, has said that over 40% of Africa energy mix comes from renewable energy.
This, according to him, is way higher than any other continent on the face of the earth, and higher than any average.
Speaking on plans and priorities for Nigeria’s Energy Mix at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja on Tuesday, Adufa said that this showed that Africa as a continent, was doing better in renewable energies more than any other continent on earth.
According to him, 22 countries out of 54 countries in Africa depend more or solely on renewable energy. Five countries are at about 90%.
Though, there are facts and figures to prove that, often times we do not hear that song sang into our ears,” he said.
Aduda stressed the need for Africa to be allowed to progress at its own pace and take part in the decisions relating to her rich natural resources.
He listed solar, geothermal and wind energy as some of the major sources of energy inherent in Africa.
“If you take Kenya for example, 40% of Geothermal and over 30% wind energy, is there any other country that can match this? I don’t think there is any on the face of the earth,” he said.
Aduda noted that with a population of over 1.4 billion people, Africa is still part of the growing urbanizing continent as we all know.
“It is understandable that Africa is harder hit by climate hazards, natural disasters, draught and flooding because while others have the technology to deal with these issues in a short time when it happens, Africa does not feel the same level of rapid response.
“So, for us to be able to compete so massively, I mean globally, in this whole idea of climate change, transition to renewable energies, we must ask ourselves what is it that we require in energy to be able to achieve industrialization, in manufacturing , value addition, not just talking about light bulbs, and capture markets here and there when you are talking about power.
“We are not saying that we do not want to go along with the world, but we think we should be able to do that at our own pace, at our own timing draw up an agenda as Africa and not to be muzzled out into rushing out of what God has given us as a natural resources, which is what we need to even prepare for and fund the transition itself.
“So a lot is on the table that we need to pay specific attention to in this industry,” he added.
A.
– July 11, 2023 @ 16:58 GMT |
Tags: Anthony Isibor Gabriel Aduda NOGEnergyWeek
