Establishment of African Energy Bank to tackle energy crisis – Sylva

The Federal Government has emphasised the need for Africa to establish an African Energy Bank (AEB) to address its peculiar energy related crisis.

The Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said this on Thursday in Abuja at the 2022 Annual Public Lecture of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Bwari Branch.

The lecture has its theme as “Inclusive Energy Transition: Key Issues, Investment Opportunities and Barriers Towards Achieving the Decades of Gas Initiative in Nigeria.”

Sylva said the energy bank would take Africans out of the doldrum of energy poverty in line with Sustainable Development Goal 7, which aims to ensure access to affordable and clean energy.

He said the inclusive energy transition, the Decade of Gas Initiative, and the 2030 Agenda for energy sustainability had provided a roadmap for action.

He urged the NSE to be at the forefront of implementing the roadmap by applying scientific, technical knowledge and experience to turn innovative ideas into sustainable projects that would benefit everyone.

“Nigerian engineers need to take center stage and improve productivity in Nigeria. This implies that the NSE must evolve to become more inventive, inclusive, cooperative, and accountable.

“I believe that there is need to address the gaps between current engineering capacity and output.

“This calls for greater collaboration between government, industry, educational and research institutes, civil society, and the engineering community.

“The collaboration will ensure that more engineers have the right skills to respond to the call for a more sustainable Nigerian Nation,” he said.

The Minister said as Nigeria moves on with the decade of gas initiative, it is also critical that engineering education fits the current and future needs of companies, especially as technology evolved and new fields developed.

He further urged government, schools, and professional engineering institutions to collaborate.