Homegrown solutions are impacting how energy is produced and used in Nigeria, playing a key role in the country’s energy transition and climate change mitigation. It is contributing to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy security.
Ndiir Solomon, a high school student of Kusaki College in Benue State in Benue State, North-Central Nigeria has sourced resources locally to build a solar-powered motorcycle. Also, Phoenix Renewables Limited, led by Mr. Mustapha A. Gajibo is making a remarkable effort in the Nigeria Energy Transition targeted at phasing out fossil fuel and embracing renewable energy. Phoenix is producing Electric Vehicles that are been used in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
These homegrown solutions will contribute hugely to Nigeria’s energy transition if given the needed support. The use of solar-powered motorcycles and solar vehicles will play a crucial role in climate change mitigation, they are initiatives that allow for the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy using solar that will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This homegrown solution does not allow for the burning of fossil fuel which is a major way of combating global warming leading to the reduction of the temperature rise. This is a significant solution for climate change mitigation.
Support from the government and individuals to the likes of Solomon’s home-grown solution is most fundamental because Nigeria has keyed into the global energy transition drive to transit from fossil fuel to zero-carbon. A global agenda targeted at mitigating climate change through the reduction of global temperature rise.
Heineken Lokpobiri, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources at the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland said his country would spend $ 3.1 trillion on its energy transition project.
As part of an intervention to help Nigeria achieve its energy transition dream, the World Bank approved $750 million to boost the country’s renewable energy. The World Bank affirming the approval through its official statement, said the project is designed to enable more than 17.5 million Nigerians to have access to improved electricity through distributed renewable energy solutions.
As the Nigerian state plans to spend $ 3.1 trillion on its energy transition project with climate change mitigation as a cardinal goal, we appeal that locally grown solutions like that of Solomon in the rural Benue community must be identified and supported.
It is through a participatory approach and support for local homegrown solutions that the Nigerian state will groom local scientists who will play a key role in the country’s technology growth and development.
Nigeria must invest in its local talents if we must grow, develop, and even compete.