Nigerian minister of science, technology and innovation, Ogbonnaya Onu, has said that the 2022 Revised National Energy Policy (NEP) and National Energy Master Plan (NEMP) will revamp the nation’s energy sector.
Onu while speaking with journalists in Abuja noted that the revised policy and master plan would enable Nigeria to take optimum advantage of available sources of energy.
“Nigeria has an abundance of crude oil, fossil fuels, and variants of renewable energy (solar, hydro, wind, geothermal and biomass), in commercial quantities, and a good mix of all these will greatly improve the energy supply in the country,” he said.
Recall that the NEP and NEMP were developed by the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), which is under the federal ministry of science, technology and innovation headed by the minister.
Also speaking, the ECN director-general, Eli Bala, said the revised NEP and the NEMP will increase performance in the country’s energy sector through proper coordination.
According to Bala, the policy will provide an instrument for the coordination of the implementation of government policies in the sector.
The ECN boss further explained that in 1990, the commission charged with the responsibility for the strategic planning and coordination of all national energy policies, set up a committee consisting of stakeholders in the energy sector, to draft a national energy policy which was not in existence.
According to the director, the NEP draft was submitted to the government in 1993 and passed through several reviews by inter-ministerial committees before it was approved by the federal government in April 2003 and launched by President Olusegun Obasanjo on June 20, 2005.
Arising from the 2003 NEP, a national committee was constituted in 2007, with members drawn from the relevant agencies to draft a national energy master plan, Bala explained.
He further explained that the NEMP is a roadmap for the implementation of the NEP that seeks to achieve the goals of policy by converting its strategies to actionable programmes, activities and projects with timelines.
He added that the NEP serves as an omnibus umbrella energy policy that covers all energy sub-sectors and gives the federal government overall energy policy direction in the exploitation of its energy resources for national energy security and development in an environmentally sustainable manner and with the active participation of the private sector.
According to ECN director, the objectives of the NEP and NEMP, include to ensure the development of the nation’s energy resources with diversified energy resources options for the achievement of national energy security and an efficient energy delivery system with an optimal energy resource mix, guarantee increased contribution of energy productive activities to national income, guarantee adequate, reliable and sustainable supply of energy at appropriate costs and in an environmentally friendly manner to the various sectors of the economy for national development; guarantee an efficient and cost-effective consumption pattern of energy resources.
The objectives are intended to accelerate the process of acquisition and diffusion of technology and managerial expertise in the energy sector and indigenous participation in energy sector industries for stability and self-reliance.
They would also promote increased investment and development of the energy sector industries with private-sector leadership, foster international cooperation in energy trade and projects development in both the African region and the world at large and ensure comprehensive, integrated and well-informed energy sector plans and programmes for effective development.
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