A nation that wants to develop must have electricity in abundance to share to manufacturers, an engineer, Akinsola Cole has said.
He spoke at an inaugural memorial lecture in honour of its pioneer chairman, Ven. Philip Bolade Oyebolu.
The lecture was organised by the Lagos State Branch of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, (NSE) .
Oyebolu died on January 19, 2024,aged 94.
The lecture was held at the Oyebolu Engineering Resources centre, University of Lagos.
Cole spoke on: “Making Electricity Available, Accessible, Affordable in Nigeria: Prospects And Challenges.”
He stated that for a nation that wants to develop, must have electricity in abundance to share to the manufacturing sector.
He said it must also have electricity available to the informal sectors and residential consumers.
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According to him, electricity is not a luxury in any society, but a necessity, saying it is very important to all structures of the society so that they can contribute their own quota to economic development.
He stated Nigeria has installed capacity of 16,384 megawatts but can only access 4200 megawatts for a population of 220 million people with the remaining megawatts being idle.
Cole urged the government to invest heavily in the electricity sector from the generation level down to the distribution level for people to be more productive.
“Currently, the Discos are billing people on 4200 megawatts to compensate for the whole power generated, it’s a simple arithmetic, remove 4200 from 16,384, electricity in Nigeria, it is so expensive,” he said.
Also Dr Olufunmilayo Mafimidiwo, an engineer, centred her presentation on “Solar System Applications to Energy Availability And Affordability for All: Prospects And Problems.”
Mafimidiwo stated that Nigeria has been richly blessed with abundance of sun, and that through research, it has been realised that the sun is even an energy in itself, more than the energy that we even produce.
She said government can make the solar system affordable for people by drastically reducing the interest rate in for the citizens to approach banks for loan to acquire it.