Nigeria urged to ease importation procedure for Renewable Energy technologies

Nigerian government has been urged to streamline and ease the importation procedure for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Technologies in a bid to stimulate investments in renewable energy, energy Efficiency and rural electrification in the country.

READ ALSO: Let’s make Africa a renewable energy superpower

The call was made at the Stakeholders’ Policy Dialogue on Importation Procedure for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient Technologies organized by the Nigerian Energy and Support Programme, NESP in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.

The Head of Programme, Nigerian Energy Support Programme, Duke Benjamin, in a message, called for the collaboration of relevant agencies in ensuring seamless policy in the importation of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient, technologies.

Mr. Benjamin represented by the Head of Component Enabling Environment, Joshua Yari Garba, noted that there is the need to ensure that the recommendations of the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy (NREEEP) on Special Customs Clearance of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient, technologies equipment are implemented in a coordinated manner and aligned with the Fiscal Policy of Nigeria.

“This will benefit the energy sector and would lead to seamless clearance process for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient, technologies increased investment in rural electrification and agricultural productivity, reduced dependence on fossil fuel and carbon emission in buildings, and improved capacity of professionals to support the development of a sustainable energy sector in Nigeria.’’

He pledged the Nigerian Energy and Support Programme, NESP, commitment in collaborating with the Nigerian government towards the acceleration of investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and rural electrification in the country.

Mr. Benjamin who disclosed that in 2015, that the Federal Executive Council approved the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy added that part of the recommendations in the policy is the establishment of a task force that will support the fast track of the policy, specifically under the special Customs Clearance for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Technology.

“As part of our support, we are supporting the Nigerian Government in ensuring that there is a special kind of Customs Clearance for Renewable energy and energy efficiency, and in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Nigerian Customs Service, we are supporting to see how we can develop a guideline and a handbook that will support importers and developers of Renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies, supporting them so that they will be able to understand the processes for the importation of these technologies,”, according to Mr. Benjamin.

He further disclosed that Customs requested that NESP support the development of a guideline and a handbook that will support these importers and developers.

“We will develop the capacity of Nigerian Customs officers to be able to identify Renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.”

“It is apt for the kind of support we will give them so that once they identify some of these technologies, they can differentiate between the one for Renewable energy and the one for ordinary use”, Mr. Benjamin explained.

He said the Policy Dialogue is for stakeholders to discuss the policies, the process of importation, and the incentives that the Federal Government has put in place for either importers or manufacturers in terms of the duty and tax the importers and developers will pay.

On the local production of renewable energy technologies, Mr. Benjamin said there is a provision for local manufacturing in the policy.

Through the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Mr. Benjamin disclosed that the Nigerian government has put in place mechanisms that will encourage investment.

The Director Renewable and Rural Power Access, Federal Ministry of Power, Abubakar Al-Dapshima in his welcome address, said Nigeria to achieve its vision for the use of renewable energy to boost the country’s quest of 30 gigawatts of electricity in the year 2030, he noted that the government will not relent in its effort to set a standard procedure for importing renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies into the country.

The Former Director General, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Professor Abubakar Sambo, said with the new Electricity Act that was passed into law in June this year and the urgent need for Nigeria to use renewable energy on a large scale, and given the fact that Nigeria doesn’t locally produce the components of using renewable energy, there has to be some importation.

Professor Sambo, said the stakeholders’ meeting became necessary to ensure all the bottlenecks for importing quality components for the use of renewable energy are addressed and resolved.

The Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP) is a technical assistance programme co-funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Power (FMP).

As part of its activities, NESP has been supporting the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and other relevant stakeholders on The Policy Dialogue that would provide stakeholders with an opportunity to deliberate and agree on steps towards improving the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient technologies Technologies