Renewable energy can become Africa’s job engine in the wake of the energy transition – Prof. Yemi Osinbajo

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) has allocated $100 million to boost increased access to renewable energy and facilitate Nigeria’s energy transition programme.

GEAPP aims to focus on the energy issue in the developing and emerging world, accelerate universal energy access, inclusive economic growth and climate goals through clean energy solutions.

The Chief Executive Officer of GEAPP, Simon Harford, said there are at least 700 million people who have no access to electricity globally.

Harford, who stressed that half of the world population lacks sufficient, affordable, and reliable energy, noted that developing countries cannot continue to solely rely on fossil fuel.

Such a situation, according to him, if left to continue, will by 2050 push greenhouse gases from developing and emerging countries to 75 per cent, adding that there is a need for a change in trajectory.

“GEAPP has been created to work on these twin challenges of energy poverty and carbon reduction created by philanthropy, we are working to bring new models and new ways of solving this problem with our partners, and we are also working to create new solutions to drive down the cost of renewable, when renewable is the cheapest solution, the market takes over,” he said.

He added that in collaboration with their partners, a pool procurement platform has been created to enable small renewable developers to procure through the platform to drive down the cost of their equipment in the first year of its pilot.

“We are working closely on the productive demand for electricity, what is the offtake for electricity that creates economic power for the economy, so the agricultural space, the SME space, productive appliances such as freezers and fridges that entrepreneurs can use to build up their own businesses. All these organizations we are working with to try to build.

“To unlock more renewable power, we work across the entire off-grid sector, initiatives to bring more local currency capital into this space, local currency debt, local currency equity, to reduce the need for offprint developers to source from offshore and to take foreign exchange exposure and to get more capital into the system,” he said.

Former Vice President of Nigeria and Global Adviser, GEAPP, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo who recently assumed the new role said renewable energy can become Africa’s job engine in the wake of the energy transition.

He pointed out that in the market and economy, renewable energy has transformed businesses by having to transform the lives of individuals involved in those businesses either through job opportunities or increased capacity of services.

Osinbajo stressed that the issues of energy in Africa are not just about climate change or an agenda of climate action but much more about ensuring energy access at the same time, by resolving climate change issues, the energy access issues should be resolved because it’s at the heart of development.

“We’re familiar with some of the quite startling statistics of the sheer number of people especially in Sub-Saharan Africa who have no access to electricity, which means there is no access to development on the skill that is required to be able to conquer poverty, all the other devastations that come along with underdevelopment.

“We really have to deal with the questions of energy access and perhaps, for us in this part of the world, one of the critical things that we must pay attention to and I believe that it is also one of the very important reasons why we are in these alliances with GEAPP and why we must work together towards this is a fact that Africa can no longer just see itself as a victim of climate change, rather, a solution to several issues arising from climate change,” he said.

Country Representative for Nigeria, GEAPP, Muhammad Wakil, said $50 million in naira equivalent is now being made available for local currency debt for renewable energy in Nigeria through a partnership with Chapel Hill Denham.

He stressed that it’s a collaboration that provides money in dollars, helping to guarantee naira funding which would then be lent to businesses in renewable energy.

Source: Guardian