Buhari: We’re working to provide solar energy to 5m households by 2030

President Muhammadu Buhari says Nigeria is working on a power plan to provide solar energy to five million households by 2030.

Buhari said this on Friday at a high-level dialogue on energy on the sidelines of the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

According to a statement issued by Femi Adesina, presidential spokesperson, Buhari said Nigeria is committed to the global energy transition plan.

“Nigeria’s commitment to a just transition is reflected in our ambitious energy compact, which includes the government’s flagship project to electrify five million households and twenty million people using decentralised solar energy solutions. This is a major first step towards closing our energy access deficit by 2030,” Buhari was quoted as saying.

“Nigeria’s commitment is also reflected in the development of our Energy Transition Plan, which was developed with the support of the UK COP26 Energy Transition Council.”

Buhari said Nigeria needs financial support to execute all the layers of the energy transition project.

“The focus of our discussions on transition must now evolve how we help countries develop detailed energy transition plans and commitments to mobilise enough financing to empower countries to implement those plans,” he said.

“The scale of financing required for Nigeria to achieve net-zero, amounts to over Four-Hundred Billion US Dollars across the Nigerian economy in excess of business-as-usual spending over the next thirty years.

“This breaks down to one-hundred and fifty-five billion US dollars net spend on generation capacity, one-hundred and thirty-five billion US dollars on transmission and distribution infrastructure, seventy-five billion US dollars on buildings, twenty-one billion US dollars on industry and twelve-billion US dollars on transport.”

The commander-in-chief, however, added that gas will continue to play a significant role “for some years” before it is phased out.

“As a global leader on the energy transition, it is imperative that I flag a major risk to development that stems from the current narrative around the energy transition, particularly on the role of gas and the lack of financing,” he said.

“Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan has laid out our roadmap to reach net-zero and highlights the scale of the effort required, which includes the development and integration of renewables into current grid infrastructure at tremendous scale and electrification of all sectors.

“This is challenging for any country especially a developing country. On our development objectives, gas will have a key role to play here for some years before being phased out.”

The president said there should be access to electricity and clean cooking solutions for those in Nigeria and around the world, adding that 490,000 people die annually owing to solid fuel cooking.

“An often-overlooked point is the essential role of gas in addressing clean cooking challenges,” he said.

“Globally there are 2.6 billion people who lack access to clean cooking — which is unacceptable. Even more concerning is that, solid fuel cooking in Africa causes almost 490,000 premature deaths annually, making it the second-largest health risk in Africa.”