The Nigerian Minister of Power Chinedu Nebo has expressed the government’s determination to provide regular electricity supply in Africa through sub-regional collaborations.
Nebo, who spoke yesterday when the undersecretary general and special representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Dr. Kande Yumkella, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, said this will bring about cooperation from countries in the region, drawing on their areas of strengths for the collective good of the entire continent.
The minister said that the African Energy Leaders Group championed by the U.N. is a welcomed development as it is targeted at the transformation of the region.
He further stressed the need for the group to give renewable energy a boost to ensure that communities that are far flung from the national grid are adequately powered with electricity, with a view to promote the citing of small scale industries in such African communities.
Earlier, Yumkella said he had come to inform the country on the need for the African Leaders Energy Group, an initiative borne out of the vacuum observed from the Millennium Development Goals, with focus on social development.
The group, he said, aims at providing universal access to energy by 2030, improve energy efficiency and double the share of renewable energy mix in the global reach.
According to Yumkella, Nigeria which is a case study for other African countries to emulate because of the success of its power sector privatization exercise, will head the West Africa sub-region of the group.
He further said that consultations were ongoing with financial conglomerates such as Bank of America, Brazil and other stakeholders to produce some of the instruments that would facilitate the provision of regular electricity to Africa.
Source: leadership.ng
