The French Government has hinted of its plan to invest $70 million into Nigeria’s renewable energy projects.
A member of the Project and Structured Finance, Sub Sahara Africa, Access Bank, Mr Chukwudumije Igwe, made this disclosure at the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance (SUNREF) Nigeria programme investor conference in Lagos. has agreed
The $70 million fund, which will be sourced through the French Development Agency/Agence Francaise de Developement (AFD), will be disbursed to renewable energy stakeholders through Access Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa (UBA).
The banker further explained that the fund would be used to support new and ongoing projects in Nigeria’s renewable energy sector and also be used to address the increasingly worrisome challenges of environmental pollution in the country.
He pointed out that SUNREF was committed to sponsoring projects that were innovative, energy-efficient and renewable in the continent, adding that “SUNREF is a fund that has been made available by AFD to back renewable and energy-efficient projects.”
Igwe said that Access Bank :is one of the disbursing banks and we are looking forward to reviewing and accessing projects that meet eligibility and also the risk criteria.
“The total size of the fund is 70 million U.S dollars and has been shared between Access Bank and UBA and we are looking for eligible projects to disburse this fund to.
“We know that a lot of the SUNREF projects are power and renewable projects and we know how critical infrastructure is to Nigeria and the federal government cannot do it alone.
“The private sector is key and we also know that bridging this gap would involve private sector and development finance institutions.
“This is why this is very critical and we hope that the fund would bridge a whole lot of the nation’s infrastructure gap”, he added.
In his remarks at the event, SUNREF Nigeria Team Lead, Javier Betancourt, explained that the $70 million was not enough, but represented a good start as what Nigeria needed is estimated to be much higher.
The investment expert said though it would be difficult to calculate the exact amount the country needed for the renewable sector in order to reduce the nation’s energy supply shortfall, but projected that with about 14GW of energy gap, the country would require an investment of about $10 billion.
According to him, over 80 million people in Nigeria are yet to be connected to any source of electricity thereby denying them socio-economic opportunities.
He expatiated: “The investment needed is enormous and $70 million does not even begin to cover it, but it does help start things.
“This fund we are bringing in will be longer terms with minimum of five years and these are concessional lending rates which would help to finance these projects”, Betancourt added.
“$70 million is a drop in the ocean, but it is an important drop because it will help move this sector to get the appropriate finance,” he said.
In his opening remarks at the conference, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Adeniyi Adebayo, noted that the Nigeria’s surging population and the attendant boost in industrial activities had led to a significant increase in energy consumption, resulting in increase in environmental pollution and economic difficulties.
