Report: Jobs in Renewables Sector to Double in 2023, Exceed Employment in Oil Industry

*Oil set for first quarterly drop since 2020 as uncertainty trails outlook

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Nigeria’s job growth in the decentralised renewable energy is expected to exceed 76,000 in 2023, up from 32,000 in 2019 and overtaking the oil and gas sector, a new report has stated.

The report by Power for All, the global campaign to end energy poverty, in collaboration with Clean Technology Hub Nigeria, showed that Nigeria has built a strong market position in the area and is poised to reap the benefits.

According to the just-released document, the distributed renewables energy sector in Nigeria has been growing rapidly and delivering clean and affordable energy, particularly to remote rural communities and is now also a major source of good and stable jobs, nearly matching those in the county’s oil and gas sector.
It includes the deployment of Solar Home Systems (SHS), which the report said currently employs 50,000 people compared to 65,000 in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

Furthermore, the demand for clean energy products in the country, it said, is expected to create more than 76,000 new jobs by 2023. “This is over twice the number of  jobs created in 2019 as reported in the powering jobs census 2019,” it added.
The sector is further expected to grow following the recently launched Nigeria Energy Transition Plan which outlines the country’s ambitions and plans to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060, while also ending energy poverty, the report said.

“It demonstrates the health and viability of the distributed renewables energy sector to help not only accelerate the country’s energy access agenda  but also to help alleviate unemployment, especially in rural areas,” said Power for All’s Director for Campaigns and Partnership, Suranjana Ghosh.
The report, partly sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, is based on a survey of more than 350 companies across five countries: Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda.

It provides a comprehensive picture of employment in the sector, including recruitment, the skill levels of the workforce, availability of and investment in training, compensation levels, women’s participation, and workforce retention.

Of the countries analysed, it pointed out that Nigeria enjoyed the fastest post-pandemic recovery and growth in jobs in the sector.
“ The country lost almost 2,000 decentralised renewable energy jobs in 2020 from short-term pandemic impacts. However, the sector bounced back strongly in 2021, registering approximately 50,000 jobs, nearly twice the number of jobs observed in 2020.
“The demand for solar home systems products, which was already on a fast upward trajectory before the pandemic, was key to the rapid recovery and growth,” it added.

The report indicated that the sector was maturing, with the percentage of formal and skilled workers comprising over half of the decentralised renewable energy workforce in the country, at more than 56 per cent.
“However, the renewable energy sector in Nigeria, similar to the other study countries, is still failing to adequately integrate women into the workforce, and this was only exacerbated by the pandemic.

“ The share of women working in the  decentralised renewable energy sector in Nigeria was 37 per cent behind Kenya’s 41 per cent which was also the highest. Notably, in the countries studied, female participation was higher in decentralised renewable energy than in the traditional energy sector at only 22 per cent, and in the broader renewable energy sector at 32 per cent.

“This shows the role that decentralised renewable energy  can play in bringing more women into more meaningful workforce positions,” it added.
Despite the growth in the number of jobs,  it noted that decentralised renewable energy companies surveyed as part of the study indicated that they struggle to fill critical roles due to a lack of qualified applicants.

The shortage of skilled workers, the document pointed out,  is expected to get worse as the sector grows and the world transitions away from fossil fuels.
“This report is coming at a very auspicious time because with the very recent release of Nigeria’s Energy Transition Plan, the report provides a great opportunity for decision makers in government as well as industry actors to apply a job and economic growth lens in implementing the plan.

“ This #PoweringJobs report makes this easier because it provides the data, and the numbers for what is possible when decentralised renewables is a core part of the transition,” noted the Chief Executive of Clean Technology Hub, Ifeoma Malo.
Meanwhile, oil headed for its first quarterly loss in more than two years as escalating fears over a global economic slowdown and a stronger dollar overshadowed concerns of tightness in oil supplies.

West Texas Intermediate traded near $80 a barrel at the weekend, with prices down around 24 per cent this quarter. Crude has been roiled by the surge in the dollar to a record over recent weeks, as aggressive central bank rate hikes darken the outlook for global growth.
The shrinking decline is a concern for the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) which has signalled its willingness to protect crude prices, a Bloomberg report said.

OPEC+ is discussing plans for an output cut, which could stem the price slide and give the market more direction.

Analysts from RBC Capital Markets to JPMorgan Chase & Co. have said the producer group could pull anywhere between 500,000 to 1 million barrels a day of supply.