PHOTO CREDIT: Nigeriaembassyprague.org
Abuja – A
development economist, Dr Chidi Onuoha, says the solution for Nigeria to come
out of the current economic recession is investment in renewable energy.
Onuoha, National President, Sustainable Energy Practitioners Association of
Nigeria (SEPAN), made this known in an interview in Abuja on Saturday.
He said that
policymakers had not discovered the secret in renewable energy and how it could
help to restore the economy.
The development economist said that the
association would educate the policymakers on how to utilise the country’s
renewable energy potential.
“What we are doing now is to educate them that
money should be appropriated toward renewable energy and that renewable energy
are not cumbersome.
“The technology is not expensive; the price is coming down
now; so, it is good for us to invest in it to boost the economy,’’ he said.
He
spoke on the recent International Monetary Fund (IMF) report which stated that
South Africa had overtaken Nigeria as the biggest economy and advised the
country to invest in renewable energy.
The position IMF report reclaimed for
Nigeria using the GDP at the end of 2015, the size of South Africa’s economy
was 301 billion dollar at the rand’s current exchange rate, while Nigeria’s GDP
was 296 billion dollar.
Onuoha said “Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa
before with 510 billion dollar when you compare it to 4,000 megawatt of energy
and economy that has the highest. “That means, there is energy deficiency in
the country.
“What it means is that if Nigeria economy is large, South Africa
has more than 20,000 or 30,000 megawatts and they have 5,000 megawatts of
renewable energy alone.
“Nigeria’s electricity came down with challenges to
2,800 megawatts,’’ he said. Onuoha said one of objectives of SEPAN was to
encourage the Federal Government to achieve 5,000 megawatts of renewable energy
by 2020 through its advocacy work. Vanguard reported
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