UNIDO Targets 75 Nigerian Industries for Energy Efficiency

Dike Onwuamaeze

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has declared that it would support 75 industries in Nigeria to improve their abilities on Resource Efficiency and Cleaner Production (RECP) and Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE).

UNIDO said that this would help them to reduce energy consumption, environmental degradation and resource depletion.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Country Representative and Regional Director, UNIDO Regional Office Hub, Mr. Jean Bakole, during the “GEF-UNIDO Industrial Energy Efficiency and Resource Efficiency and Cleaner Production Capacity Building Workshop for Media Stakeholders,” which was held in Lagos State.

Bakole, who was represented by UNIDO’s Environment Expert, Mr. Oluyomi O. Banjo, said that UNIDO is presently implementing the Nigeria country programme, which has been approved to be transformed to a Programme for Country Partnership (PCP). He added that the programme, which has environment and energy as its two distinct programmes, would run from 2018 to 2022. 

He said: “We hope to support not less than 75 industries across five sectors of food and beverages, wood and furniture, steel and metals, textile and garment and petrochemicals. We will develop the capacity of the organised private sector and develop not less than 300 Nigerian RECP-IEE experts.

“UNIDO has implemented IEE in over 18 countries around the world and has also implemented RECP in over 60 countries. This programme will create an opportunity to develop the IEE and RECP methodologies, human capacity building which will also see Nigerians being trained to a global standard as energy assessors and RECP experts.

“We are hoping that this will eventually lead to the creation of National Cleaner Production Centres in the country (Nigeria), which will also promote circular economy.” 

According to him, “This project was collectively developed and submitted by UNIDO on behalf of Nigeria in 2017 under the Global Environment Facility (GEF) 6 Programming Circle.

“It was approved for full project development in 2017 and subsequently approved for full project implementation in 2020. It may interest you to know that for the first time at UNIDO, we are having an integrated IEE and RECP in one project.

“In South Africa, UNIDO’s project on IEE was recently accorded the best project of the year by the Southern Africa Energy Efficiency Confederation. We look forward to replication records like this in Nigeria.”

Bakole added that “you may wish to know that the outcome of this project is targeted at industries to develop an expert base for Nigeria, which could be exported to other countries in Africa and beyond.

“This project will address to a good extent the questions on how industries can improve their efficiency, increase profitability, operate at international best standards, comply with regulations and maintain improved relationship with policy makers.”

He said that “a pilot financing RECP-IEE scheme will be executed through the Bank of Industry (BoI) of Nigeria and issue around ISO 50000 and 14001 will be executed through Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

The Chief Risk Officer of BoI, Mr. Ezekiel Oseni, noted that availability of energy is one of the major challenges facing manufacturers in Nigeria and hoped that the IEE will help to lower their cost of production, “and have positive multiplier effects across the value chain. It would also help in promoting cleaner environment in line with SDGs.”

The Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, in his welcome address during the workshop, specifically appreciate the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNIDO for initiating the entire project that would support the solution of energy challenges in the country. 

Ajayi-Kadir, who was represented by Director, Corporate Services Division of MAN, Mr. Ambrose Oruche, said that the GEF-UNIDO IEE and RECP project would provide a credible energy platform that Nigerian industries could explore to narrow the energy gap in the country.

He said: “Unfortunately, the Nigerian industrial sector has suffered very limited energy supply at exorbitant cost; notwithstanding the implications on competitiveness.”

The Representative of the IEE Working Group at the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Mr. Oluwayemi Fabiyi, said, during the workshop that it is important to note that Nigeria greatly needs to improve its energy efficiency, especially for the industries. 

Fabiyi said: “Competitive/efficient use of obtainable energy not only makes power more available for consumption it also helps to minimise and avoid environmental pollution mitigate climate change and increase productivity.”

He said that the project was slated to commence in 2020 but due to COVID pandemic and restriction it fully commenced in mid-2021.

The Deputy Director and Group Head, Electrical Electronics of SON, Mr. Alewu Cherry Achema, who was represented by Mr. Timi Michael, charged stakeholders “to embrace these concepts so that policies and guidelines that encourage energy efficiency can be developed and implemented,” adding that “incentives are being planned towards encouraging many companies in Nigeria to buy into these initiatives.”