World Bank, US EXIM Bank Commit $3bn To Nigeria Energy Transition Plan (Video)

The World Bank and the US Export-Import Bank (EximBank) say they will commit over $3 billion to the implementation of Nigeria’s energy transition plan.

The international organisations made the commitment on Wednesday at the official global launching of the Energy Transition Plan by Yemi Osinbajo, vice-president.

Shubham Chaudhuri, Nigeria country director, World Bank, said the international bank aims at committing over $1.5 billion towards the country’s energy transition plan.

“We plan to commit over $1.5 billion towards the Energy Transition Plan on renewable energy, on power sector reforms, and potentially hydropower, on clean cooking, and wherever opportunities arise,” he said.

“The policy and institutional reforms that will be necessary are also part of the agenda and we hope to be able to provide support for the fundamentally imperative of energy access but in a way that is consistent with the energy transition, what I think of as the NEAT imperative.

“The Nigerian Energy Access and Transition (NEAT) imperative is what we here at the World Bank are absolutely committed to supporting.”

On his part, Adam Cortese, chief executive officer (CEO), Sun Africa, a renewable energy solutions company, said it was in the final stage of talks with the US EXIM Bank on a $1.5 billion financing package.

“The launch of Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan has further accelerated our efforts, proving Nigeria to be fertile grounds for investments in the sector. We are in the final stages of discussion with US EXIM Bank on a USD 1.5 billion financing package,” Adam said.

“We are truly excited about the future and we are looking forward to helping Nigeria lead by way of example in Africa.”

Climate change is perhaps the greatest existential threat of our time. The most reliable evidence today shows that every inhabited region across the globe is already affected and that no place on earth will be immune to its effects.

In Africa, the effects are expected to be particularly damaging. For instance, climate change threatens crop productivity in regions that are already food insecure. And since agriculture provides the largest number of jobs, reduced crop productivity will worsen unemployment.

Yet from all indicators, as a global community, we are behind schedule on the pathway to limiting warming to 1.5 degrees to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. It is certainly time for decisive action. African nations are rising to the challenge.

All African countries have signed the Paris Agreement and some countries, South Africa, Sudan, Angola, and Nigeria have also announced net-zero targets.

But for Africa, the problem of energy poverty is as important as our climate ambitions. Energy use is crucial for almost every conceivable aspect of development. Africa with about 17% of the world’s population only generates 4% of the world’s electricity.

Unfortunately, in the wider responses to the climate crisis,we are not seeing careful consideration and acknowledgement of Africa’s aspirations. For instance, despite the tremendous energy gaps, global policies are increasingly constraining Africa’s energy technology choices.

There is a clear need for African nations to engage more critically and vocally in conversations on our global climate future. We need to take ownership of our transition pathways and design climate-sensitive strategies that address our growth objectives.

This is what Nigeria has sought to do with our Energy Transition Plan.

The Plan was designed to tackle the dual crises of energy poverty and climate change and deliver SDG7 by 2030 and net-zero by 2060 while centering on the provision of energy for development, industrialization, and economic growth.

We anchored the plan on key objectives including lifting 100 million people out of poverty in a decade, driving economic growth, bringing modern energy services to the full population and managing the expected long-term job loss in the oil sector due to global decarbonization.

Given these objectives, the plan recognizes the role natural gas must play in the short term to facilitate the establishment of baseload energy capacity and address the nation’s clean cooking deficit in the form of LPG.

However, the plan also highlights the significant scale of resources required to attain both development and climate ambitions. Nigeria would need to spend $410 billion above business-as-usual spending to deliver our T-Plan by 2060, which translates to about $10 billion per year.

The average $3 billion per year investments in renewable energy recorded for the whole of Africa between 2000 and 2020 will certainly not suffice.

Significantly, today, we are also launching an innovative, results-based, finance programme that focuses specifically on scaling up electricity access for productive uses.

The Universal Energy Facility will provide grant payments to enable solar companies expand their operations to small- and medium-sized enterprises across Nigeria while crowding in additional private capital.

Projects supported by the Universal Energy Facility will help grow businesses and create jobs, making them key contributors to our Energy Transition Plan.

I’d like to encourage solar companies in attendance today to engage with this innovative financing opportunity, which is being managed by Sustainable Energy for All @SEforALLorg