Politically speaking, the Honorable Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, reeled out the gains of his recent trip to Germany as a member of the entourage of Mr. President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and they are laudable and promising for the power sector if religiously executed.

Owing to the fact that there exist a huge energy gap in Nigeria with the citizens not enjoying stable power supply, the outlined benefits are merely promissory and cannot assuage the desperation of Nigerians who are yearning for improved performance in the power sector. It cannot be over-emphasized that energy self-sufficiency is necessary if a nation must progress on the path of growth and development and improve the quality of life of the people.

According to the honorable Minister in his X (formerly Twitter) handle, he disclosed five take-aways of the trip to include acceleration of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) to fulfil the President’s vision for reliable electricity in Nigeria; that Nigeria is open for business, explaining that there are good opportunities to invest in the sector particularly in the manufacturing of electrical equipment such as transformers, substations, power lines/cables, solar panels and batteries; targeting the increase use of renewable energy in our energy mix in recognition of the effect of climate change; $500 million MOU between Union Bank and DWS Group to harness $500 investment in renewable energy projects across Nigeria with focus on rural inclusion; and in order to take advantage of Germany’s robust technical education system, Nigeria will actively engage in fostering talent exchange, focusing on structured skill development and facilitating the transfer of technology for Nigerian youths.

At this juncture of our national life, the execution of the above intentions should be expedited to turn-around the current poor status of the power sector.

Germany is no stranger in the power sector in Nigeria as her company, Siemens, has been deeply involved in the sector in the past. It is on record that Siemens built 330kV sub-stations in Ikeja-West (Lagos), Ayede (Ibadan), Kumbotso (Kano) amongst other projects, so it is long overdue that the company ought to have located a manufacturing plant in Nigeria to produce some of the equipment used in the sector and for knowledge transfer as well as employment generation.

Also, the Nigerian government should explore the possibilities for Siemens to resuscitate our Siemens-SCADA equipment at the National Control Centre in order to expand its current limited coverage.

As a leading nation in renewable energy, Germany will be a veritable partner in Nigeria’s bid to expand and diversify her energy mix. This is reasonably achievable because Nigeria has abundant raw materials for renewable energy like solar, wind, plant materials (biomass), hydro, and geothermal sources. In addition, Nigeria is endowed with Lithium, which is a significant raw material in the manufacture of batteries.

Nigerians applaud the above take-aways and are eagerly looking forward to the fulfilment of agreements reached and MOUs’ signed for the benefit and improvement of the power sector.