The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Electrification Agency Of Nigeria, REAN, Abba Aliyu, has said that Nigeria’s capacity in the production of renewable equipment like solar panels is still too low to warrant the consideration of a solar import ban.
This is coming after the Minister for Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Nnaji, recently claimed that the government is willing to support domestic manufacturers of solar panels by restricting their imports.
Amid the unnecessary conflicting statements, we cannot help but agree with Abba Aliyu that our dear nation is nowhere near ready to enforce any ban on solar panel importations.
With only 6,000 megawatt generation capacity from its national power grid serving about 225 million Nigerians, Nigeria has definitely not had it good with electricity. For most citizens, the situation is even worse with the ridiculous cost of energy by the Distribution Companies, DISCOs, in the past 2 years. And even if the Federal Government has handed over electricity generation and distribution powers to the states, most state governments’ plans to invest in power grids are still far from implementation.
Most financially buoyant Nigerians have resorted to using solar power to safeguard themselves from the unstable power supply across the country. However, solar power is not exactly cheap despite its increasing popularity.
Not many Nigerians can pay the amount required to purchase it, and they simply cannot rely on what NASENI and other government agencies are doing to make it affordable. This is because since NASENI was established in 1992, it has functioned mainly on propaganda, with zero impact when it comes to matters it actually exists for.
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If Nigerians have to wait for NASENI, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, and every other federal agency that have failed to do their jobs, our industrial and technological development will remain at risk.
We can only urge governments at all levels to encourage financial institutions to offer loan facilities for the acquisition of solar energy by willing and able individuals. We also advise that the importation of quality solar panels should continue, even if attracting more investments for their domestic production is equally important.
And in conclusion, we urge public officials to stop confusing Nigerians with their statements, we already lack clarity on where our dear nation is heading as it is.
