By ABAH SUNDAY, Abuja
Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has urged stakeholders to work towards unlocking and developing the rich hydropower potentials of African nations to achieve sustainable energy future for the continent.
The Minister gave the advice while participating at the Africa High-Level Roundtable on Sustainable Hydropower in the African Renewable Energy Mix of the 21st Century held Tuesday in Abuja.
According to him, Africa is a continent blessed with immense resources Among which is her vast untapped water systems that hold the key to unlocking a clean, reliable, and abundant source of energy.
According to his speech made available to newsmen, Adelabu argued that as Africa struggles to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 of ensuring universal access to affordable electricity by 2030, sustainable hydropower development stands as a powerful pillar in her renewable energy mix to close the energy access gap while simultaneously tackling the problems of climate change on the continent.
“According to the International Energy Agency, over 600 million Africans (or 43% of the total population) currently lack access to electricity with Nigeria having the bulk of the population estimated to be over 85 million by the World Bank. This not only hinders economic growth but also impacts basic human capital development on the continent.
“Africa’s hydropower potential is estimated to be around 340 GW, of which only 11% (less than 40MW) are exploited, compared to 53% in Europe, 39% in North America, 26% in South America and 20% in Asia.
“This gap presents a tremendous opportunity for responsible and sustainable hydropower development to improve energy access on the continent while increasing the renewable energy penetration in the energy mix,” the Minister explained.
On the home front, he acknowledged hydropower as a sustainable contributor to the Nigeria’s energy mix content for decades, which, according to him, accounts for about 20% of total grid supply at the moment.
“Currently Nigeria has completed key hydropower projects such as 760MW Kainji hydropower, 578MW Jebba hydropower, 600MW Shiroro hydropower, 40MW Mabon hydropower project and the recently commissioned 700MW Zungeru hydropower and 40MW Kashimbila hydropower.
“Whilst the country has a hydropower potential estimated at 14GW, only about 15% has been explored. This signifies huge untapped potential in hydropower across Nigeria,” he said, adding that, for small hydropower, the country has over 340 dams spread across the different geo-political zones, under the management of the three government tiers, which are either not optimally utilised or at risk of damage.
“A multitude of river systems, providing about 70 micro dams, 126 mini dam and 86 small sites, supply a technically exploitable capacity of 3.5GW, but only 1.7% (0.06GW) of these resources is currently being tapped.1 While there is about 10GW of potential untapped capacities from the large and medium-sized hydropower.
“In line with the Nigeria Energy Transition Plan, the Federal Government of Nigeria aims, and is, committed to achieve sustainable energy access target for all by 2030 by ensuring 30GW of electricity is available by 2030; 30% of which is generated from renewable energy sources.
“This is important to ensure Nigeria achieves its updated Nationally Determined Contribution from 2021 to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by cutting emissions by 20 percent in the year 2030 unconditionally (and 45 percent with international support) from business-as-usual levels.
“To achieve this, the Federal Government on Nigeria is currently exploring a Sustainable Power and Irrigation Project for Nigeria (SPIN) with the World Bank to improve utilization of existing storage for irrigation and hydropower generation and strengthen institutional arrangements for integrated water resources management in Nigeria.
“SPIN aims to unlock additional 10GW combined capacity from existing dams with provisions for hydropower, Greenfield projects and existing multipurpose dams that can be modified/redesigned and retrofitted,” he explained.
Expressing the belief that in spite of the challenges Africa can unlock the true potential of hydropower through a collaborative and sustainable approach, the Minister however advocated environment-friendly approach.
“We must address environmental concerns around dam construction and ecosystem disruption, alongside social impacts on local communities. This requires a commitment to sustainability, stakeholder engagement, and innovative solutions to financing these large-scale projects,” he said.