The Federal Government has inaugurated the National Consultative Committee on Renewable Energy statistics (NCC on res).
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the National Energy Statistics workshop in Abuja, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Adeleke Mamora, said the inauguration is critical to reliable data on renewable energy.
He said, “The constitution and inauguration of the Consultative Committee is a necessary and critical instrument in having reliable data on renewable energy for planning and research purposes, particularly now that climate mitigation hinges mostly on the transition to renewable energy and energy efficiency.”
According to Mamora, the committee, which will comprise all relevant government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, as well as non-government actors and the private sector, will operate by a term of reference.
“It will have a terms of reference to provide a common platform to share renewable energy statistics, achieve greater coordination and avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and provide the mechanism for and harmonization of renewable energy statistics to support the National Energy Databank of the Commission as the repository of bankable energy data in Nigeria.” He said.
The Minister also seized the opportunity to call on the Federal Ministries of Power and Mines and Steel Development to establish similar committees for Coal, Bitumen and Radioactive sources and power, respectively, for a holistic coverage of the entire energy sector.
In his welcome address, the Director General/CEO Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Professor Eli Jidere Bala, reiterated the importance of the commission.
“It is important to state here that the petroleum statistical data is collated by the National Consultative Committee on Petroleum Statistical Data established by the Ministry of Petroleum. However, no consultative committees on Coal, Bitumen, Radioactive sources, Electricity and Renewable Energy. ECN has initiated the establishment of the National Consultative Committee on Renewable resources.
“ECN has also collaborated with the ECOWAS Commission with the support of the European Union in the implementation of the 11 European Development Fund (EDF) on Energy Governance programme in West Africa (AGOSE-AO) with the primary objective to harmonize and validate 2021 energy data for compiling commodity balance-oil gas, coal, electricity, renewables and consolidated Energy Balance.
“With the national consultative committee, we will have more reliable and acceptable data for planning and investments.” Professor Bala noted.
Delivering a keynote address, the Statistician General of the Federation, Prince Semiu Adeniran, said, “the energy transition program envisages transition pathways across key sectors of the economy and to support the implementation of the transition program, it is imperative that all stakeholders can track the constitution of these energy resources in terms of value asset to GDP.
“Recognizing the critical role data plays to policy development and implementation, on our part at NBS, we will continue to address the binding constraints to the production and dissemination of energy data in Nigeria. Apart from establishing the new energy statistics division in the last years in NBS, we have taken advantage of two important pillars to develop this new division: collaboration and technology.
“We plan to use both to address the constraints in generating and reporting energy statistics through increased collaboration and engagement with critical stakeholders such as the Energy Commission of Nigeria.” Prince Semiu noted.
