YEMI OSINBAJO : Renewable Energy will Empower  Businesses, Create Jobs for Nigerians

Former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was recently appointed as Global Advisor to Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet. In this interview with Emma Okonji, Osibanjo unveils his strategies to promote renewable energy in Nigeria and Africa with a view to enhancing businesses and job creation. Excerpts:

You recently joined the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), as Global Advisor. What motivated you to join and what is your specific role as Global Advisor?

 Yes, I have joined GEAPP as Global Advisor and I think it is a place to be after leaving office on May 29, 2023, as Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. While in office, I closely followed the activities of GEAP in Africa and I was pleased with their operations, which focused on universal energy access and climate change. I was motivated by the partnerships they have maintained with different African governments, including the partnership with the Nigerian government on clean energy and climate change. The truth is that the issues we are facing with climate change cannot be addressed without focused partnerships, and that is exactly what GEAPP is doing in Nigeria and in other African countries. GEAPP has done an excellent job in building those partnerships across the African continent to address climate change and provide access to clean energy.

As Global Advisor, I will support GEAPP’s partnership with governments to enhance the enabling environment and deliver effectiveness to unlock faster and greater capital flows into the clean energy sector. I will be a leading advocate for Just Energy Transitions in Africa including scaling up Africa’s share of the global carbon market via the Africa Carbon Markets Initiative (ACMI).

My role is also to champion access to clean energy in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

I am particularly happy that I will be working with GEAPP to drive clean energy in Nigeria and Africa. I am fascinated by the level of partnerships that GEAPP is building with the Nigerian government to promote clean energy in the country. Nigeria needs access to clean energy and energy access is central for us as a country, because it is at the centre of our development. If Nigerians do not have access to sufficient clean energy that is required for development, it will set us back as a country. Our emphasis at GEAPP is about providing access to electricity that will drive economic growth and job creation, and help Nigerians and the rest of Africa to conquer poverty and diseases.

Can you tell us more about GEAPP and the impact of its operations on Nigeria and Africa? 

The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) is an alliance of philanthropy, governments in emerging and developed economies, and technology, policy, and financing partners. Our common mission is to enable emerging economies to shift to a clean energy, pro-growth model that accelerates universal energy access and inclusive economic growth, while supporting the global community to meet critical climate goals during the next decade. As an alliance, we aim to reduce four gigatonnes of future carbon emissions, expand clean energy access to one billion people, and enable 150 million new jobs. With philanthropic partners like IKEA Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, and Bezos Earth Fund, GEAPP works to build the enabling environment, capacity, and market conditions for private sector solutions, catalyse new business models through innovation and entrepreneurship, and deploy high-risk capital to encourage private sector solutions and assist just transition solutions.

As for the impact on Nigeria and Africa, I will say that I do not need to reinvent the wheel, being the Global Advisor to GEAPP, because there is a lot already put in place to drive GEAPP’s initiative. GEAPP has several philanthropists and multilateral institutions that are helping to drive its initiatives. Basically the objectives of GEAPP are the same, and the objectives are geared towards transition. What we will be working on to achieve our objectives, will be on the peculiar needs of the different states and countries, and that of course is not a one-size-fits-all affair. In doing so, we will not attempt to influence the policies of governments, because we know that different countries of the world already have their developmental plans. Once people see that there are economic benefits, job creation benefits, they will certainly buy into the GEAPP initiative. In Nigeria, GEAPP has developed an energy transition plan that is one of the best in the world and the plan is helping the Nigerian government to focus on what the critical issues are in the transition process and to identify the important economic value chain. It is also helping to identify the kind of support and the kind of funds that will be required from the private sector and donor foundations. We are working towards reducing the cost of access to renewable energy to enable more Nigerians to have access to renewable energy. The cheaper renewable energy is, the better it will be for Nigerian businesses and for job opportunities.  

How does GEAPP intend to fund the renewable energy initiative in Nigeria?

In terms of funding, what is important to the communities that will benefit from renewable energy is about how the GEAPP’s funding will catalyse other funding. So it is not about the quantity of our funding, but the nature of our funding to unlock capital flow. We have an agreement with the development finance body to co-invest over $10 billion, alongside $1 billion from another body. So it is a 10:1 multiplier effect. Our ultimate goal is to unlock private sector capital, because that is where the greatest size of money comes from. In South Africa, GEAPP is working in partnership with the World Bank and has invested $7 million to enable $450 million of World Bank money to move the scale up of the commissioning plans. So $7 million of GEAPP’s capital has catalysed $450 million from World Bank, to drive renewable energy project in South Africa. In Nigeria, GEAPP is trying to unlock pension fund money and bank lending into the renewable energy space. GEAPP has put in $10 million in the pilot stage that will unlock several multiple of dollars of similar lending from the Nigerian Pension Fund industry.  So the GEAPP funding model is to invest in such a way that it would catalyse several millions of commercial capital to support our renewable energy initiative for Africa.      

What is your view about Nigeria and the rest of Africa in making adequate preparation to address climate change?

It is evident that if we do not take serious action to address climate change, we may cease to exist one day as a continent. Countries of the world are developing their infrastructure to address climate change and Africa must not be left out. The Nigerian economy is still very fragile and we need to strengthen it by putting the right infrastructure in place to address climate change. There is a lot for us to do and to do quickly as a country and as a continent in order to reverse what we are seeing and experiencing today in the area of climate change.

It is not only about addressing climate change, it also entails access to clean energy at the same time. So as we try to resolve the climate change issues, we must also try to resolve the energy access issues.

Energy access issue is central to us as a nation because it is at the heart of development.  No matter how we put it, if we do not deal with energy access issues, we may not have the energy that is required for development.

How will GEAPP address the issue of poor infrastructure in Nigeria and Africa in achieving its renewable energy drive?

The opportunity that climate change offers Nigeria and the rest of Africa is the opportunity to leapfrog. In Nigeria, the government is beginning to see the need to decentralise our energy supply and the policy is already addressing some of the Nigerian electricity challenges. So rather than have a single grid system, we now have mini-grid systems that have increased energy capacity across the country. This of course is addressing Nigeria’s energy infrastructure challenge. In the next five years, I see a great improvement in our energy infrastructure.      

Tell us about GEAPP’s campaign strategy to provide access to clean energy in Nigeria?

The ambition of GEAPP is to provide access to electricity to all Nigerians that do not have access to electricity. The campaign for access to electricity, which started from Lagos in Nigeria, is expected to cover other African countries, and it is designed to empower individuals and small businesses with electricity that comes from renewable energy.

The campaign actually started from Ikorodu market in Lagos, where traders were provided with roof-top solar panels that generated electricity 24/7 to power their businesses.  

Over 700 million people globally have no access to electricity, including Nigeria, while half of the global population lacks access to affordable, sufficient and reliable energy to power their lives and businesses. GEAPP is therefore determined to provide access to clean energy to people globally, including Nigeria. The roof-top solar energy that we installed in the Ikorodu market has significantly improved businesses, as traders have now grown their customer base and daily sales, due to the constant electricity supply from our roof-top solar panel. We are determined to cover the entire Nigeria with clean energy

With the supply of clean energy in an Ikorodu market in Lagos, GEAPP has helped businesses in the market to quickly transform. The lives of traders and customers were also transformed and that is the core of what GEAPP is trying to achieve in Nigeria and the rest of Africa and the world at large. So the emphasis for us at GEAPP is how to provide access to clean energy to so many Nigerians and Africans who do not have access to clean energy to power their homes and businesses.  The statistics of the number of those without access to electricity in sub-Saharan Africa are quite worrisome. So I think as a nation and continent, we really have to deal with the issue of energy access, and it is one of the critical things that GEAPP must pay attention to.

What must Africans do to key into the vision of GEAPP in providing access to green energy?

As a matter of fact, Africa can be a solution to a number of issues about climate change and access to green energy. I say this because Africa has abundant nuclear energy, with natural resources from the sun. What we need to do is to invest in solar panels and batteries. In Nigeria, we have a large youth population and Nigeria’s carbon is one of the largest in the world. So it is possible to make Africa the solution to energy issues. Africa can create millions of job opportunities for its youth population, using renewable energy. That is possible if we are able to build the right infrastructure and align with the countries and organisations like GEAPP that are committed to addressing the issues of climate change and clean energy.

If Africa is to develop along the same carbon trajectory that other countries of the world have done, then it will be impossible for the entire world to achieve carbon zero by 2050. So there has to be a green energy solution to develop Nigeria, Africa and the rest of the world, and that is the only way the world can realistically achieve carbon zero by any of the targeted dates, be it 2050 or 2060.         

What level of impact will the GEAPP initiative bring to Nigeria and the rest of Africa?

The level of impact it will create on the people and businesses, will be massive because the objectives of achieving the goal remain clear. As Global Advisor, I will devise means to address the peculiar needs of different countries in Africa that GEAPP will be working with.

Once governments see the economic benefits of the GEAPP’s initiative on transition to clean energy, I am sure they will buy into the initiative. GEAPP’s collaborative model, sense of urgency, and focus on unlocking systemic change is well aligned with the ambitions of emerging economies as they seek a greener future for their citizens. GEAPP’s vision for change is ambitious and it is working on how to reduce the cost of the components of renewable energy like storage batteries, solar panel among others there is a programme around the cost reduction initiative, to enable more Nigerians and more Africans to have access to affordable, sufficient and reliable clean energy.

My appointment underlines GEAPP’s commitment to partnering with governments and communities across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean to transition to clean energy systems that are driving economic growth, generating jobs and sustainable livelihoods, and helping to meet urgent climate goals during the next decade.