Nigerian innovations: Waste-to-energy solutions
Nigeria is the continent’s largest economy yet it faces a major electricity deficit. According to the World Bank, nearly 47% of Nigerians do not currently have access to grid electricity and even those who are connected, face usual power outages.
Solving this serious crisis provides an opportunity for
entrepreneurs, says CEO of TradeDepot, Onyekachi Izukanne.
“Something I would be keen to explore, if I had the
opportunity, is waste-to-energy conversion,” added Izukanne. “I really believe our
energy gap is an important opportunity.
With the right model, you can drive energy conversion and
deploy it on a small-scale basis to SMEs in urban areas, especially
manufacturing set-ups,” he remarked.
Izukanne is of the opinion that while stable electricity is definitely
a top priority for the Nigerian government, the private sector will have to
play a major role in providing solutions to this challenge.
Even though the government began the National Economic
Recovery and Growth Plan back in March 2017, which had stable power supply at
its core, not sufficient progress has so far been made.
Nigeria suffers from regular, unscheduled power outages and
the approximate cost of the energy shortages is the equivalent of 2% of GDP. It
is ranked as one of the most serious constraints for the private sector.
Unfortunately, waste to energy solutions do not receive as
much publicity as do other sustainable energy generation solutions.
It has had some good success in Europe but in Africa, there
are only a few that are currently viable, according to the Africa Report.
In 2019, a study was concluded by a research team from the
Glasgow Caledonian University that anticipated that residual waste in Abuja and
Lagos could potentially generate 54 GWh/year and 475 GWh/year respectively;
sufficient to power over 11,000 and 94,000 homes.
“My bias would be to look at the technology that can drive
the conversion, specifically for urban small- to medium-scale manufacturing,” added
Izukanne.
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