The Minister of State of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing
Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe
Kachikwu, has emphasized the need for Nigeria to give serious
consideration to renewable energy as the solution to its energy
challenges.
Speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the World Future Energy
Summit currently in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, the Minister
acknowledged that crude oil and gas are exhaustible resources, noting that
the way to make energy accessible to Nigerians in every nook and cranny of
the country is to exploit renewable energy sources.
“We need to refocus a lot more effectively on alternative energy
resources, particularly solar energy. There is really no reason why a
country like Nigeria should not have more of its power supply from solar.
President Buhari is very focused on this. This is something we are going
to apply a lot more energy to in the days ahead”, Dr. Kachikwu stated.
He said he did not believe that the exploration of renewable energy would
pose a competition to the petroleum industry but rather would complement
it as petroleum alone could not meet the huge energy need of the country,
more so when the crude oil and gas would get exhausted someday.
“We can produce crude and fire gas, but ultimately, the only way to
sustainably reach every nook and cranny and every citizen of our country
with some level of power supply is to look towards natural sources such as
solar, wind, and water resources. Solar used to be very expensive but the
cost is dramatically coming down”, he said.