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7TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE OF THE NIGERIAN-GERMAN ENERGY PARTNERSHIP IN ABUJA.
Prof. Akin Iwayemi, President of Nigerian Economic Society has said that the development of a robust renewable energy sector is a panacea to the energy crisis in the country.
Iwayemi said this in Abuja while presenting a paper titled “Energy Reform in Nigeria” at the 7th Conference of the Nigeria Association of Energy Economists (NAEE)/International Association of Energy Economists (IAEE)
Iwayemi said that energy was crucial to poverty alleviation, rapid industrial development and wealth creation.
He, however, decried the energy poverty in the country.
Iwayemi, who was past president of NAEE, expressed dismay that “Nigeria suffers energy crisis amidst energy abundance”.
He said the country was blessed with abundant natural energy resources that it should not suffer from inadequate energy supply.
Iwayemi expressed concern that energy markets in Nigeria had failed to deliver adequate and reliable supplies to end users since the early 1970’s.
“The energy crisis is occurring in spite of the abundant renewable and non-renewable resource endowments.
“Our effort to meet the goals of poverty reduction, wealth creation, industrialisation and inclusive growth and development has been constrained by the energy crisis.
“Clearly, ensuring the availability of adequate,reliable and affordable energy supplies to industries, agricultural enterprises, commerce and households will be a key challenge for energy and income in the coming decades,” he said.
He noted that energy was an important angle to unlocking the enormous natural resources potential in the country in the effort to achieve significant improvement in social well-being and sustainable development.
According to him, overcoming the current under-performing and inefficient energy infrastructure and service provision failures, is crucial in the drive to achieve sustainable energy and economic development in Nigeria.
“The current energy crisis provides an opportunity for achieving a transformative shift towards greater dependence on renewable energy in the drive for sustainable human development.
“Leveraging on the economic and technological opportunities that a transformative shift towards renewable energy offers is central in achieving a more diversified and decentralised energy industry.”
Prof. Yinka Omorogbe, a law professor at the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies who also corroborated Iwayemi’s claim, however, decried the inadequate laws in the downstream sector, especially in the renewable energy sector.
Omorogbe said “renewable energy is totally unregulated; we don’t have enough regulations in the energy sector.
We don’t have laws for renewable energy”.
“On the downstream, we don’t have laws; on the upstream we have obsolete laws, and we actually need to get a lot done before forging ahead,” she said.(NAN)
© anu for Royal Times of Nigeria Newspaper, 2014. |
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