Blame lawmakers for Nigeria’s failed solar street light projects – Sambo

Abubakar Sambo, former director-general of the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), and Vice Chairman of World Energy Council (WEC), Africa Region said that Nigerian lawmakers corrupted the process for the award of solar street light contracts and this killed the initiative, leading to loss of billions of naira over seven years.

In major cities across Nigeria, shards of failed solar street panels provide the clearest evidence, some Nigerians say, of the unreliability of solar power fuelling the notion that solar infrastructure are not only expensive but unreliable.

Sambo said the reasons are more nuanced. At the induction of new members of the Council for Renewable Energy Nigeria (CREN), held in Lagos recently, Sambo who made a presentation on how investors can deepen solar adoption called for greater private sector participation in the sector and enforce transparency in the process of budgeting and contracts award.

“We had guidelines that were established for the projects and they were appropriated for in the national budget but the legislators will bring their companies to execute them, we refused,” said Sambo, who led the team that advised the government on solar street lights.

Sambo said that the Energy Commission had a tough fight to shake off the legislators who were keen on awarding the contracts to themselves. The Commission decided to award it to contractors but the lawmakers still corrupted the process asking contractors to bring money before they get approval. Eventually it decided to be taken to the local government level.

“The local governments signed with the commission to look after these assets, but they never did, nobody was resetting the charge controllers, they neglected wiping dust from the panels you need which reduces transmission of rays. To compound the situation many of the panels were stolen within months of installation.”

“Worse still, the funds were never coming in block, someone will put money in Epe, another time in Ota, Ogun state, so no coordination, different projects over several years, as lawmakers award them carelessly saying they want to bring dividends of democracy to their people,”

A study conducted last year by a team of researchers led by Eugene Ikejemba, of the University of Twente in the Netherlands, published in Renewable Energy Magazine, found that governments and agencies planning solar projects failed to carry out needs assessments for suitability and sustainability issues.

Nigeria is missing out on the solar power revolution currently taking place in different parts of the world as households averagely get barely 600 kilowatt hours a year of electricity, compared with a global average of nearly 3,500 kilowatt, according to the World Energy Council.

CREN, a not-for-profit, multi-stakeholder association which promotes large scale renewable energy adoption in Nigeria says it is ramping up efforts to drive the use of solar energy in the rural areas.

“We are enthused for this 2017 members induction ceremony which is seeing new members having paid up their dues, being inducted,” says Anita Okuribudo, president of CREN, “We urge you to do everything to ensure that Nigeria achieves deeper renewable energy adoption especially in rural areas,” says Okuribudo.

ISAAC ANYAOGU