COMMUNIQUÉ OF THE AFRICAN ENGINEERING CONFERENCE ON ENERGY, HELD AT IBOM TROPICANA CONFERENCE CENTRE UYO, AKWA IBOM STATE FROM MONDAY 21ST – 25TH NOVEMBER, 2016
Theme: Adequate,
Reliable and Sustainable Energy in Africa
During his investiture as the Grand
Patron of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE), President Buhari was widely quoted
as paying superlative compliments to
Nigerian Engineers.
His Excellency said “I think that
if Nigerian Engineers are denied their roles, it is not the fault
of the profession. It is the fault of some individual governments. Other governments have done their best
and found Nigerian Engineers competent
and cost effective. Nigerian Engineers are very quick in uptaking and performing in the field”. It was also stated
during that event that “For example, in China,
between 2000 and 2013, all the nine
members of the Standing Committee (Ministers) of the Politburo were trained engineers. Currently, about
half of the cabinet ministers in
Singapore are engineers and in China, 70 per cent of the cabinet are engineers.”
Preamble
The African Engineering Conference on Energy, UNESCO Africa Engineering Week,
and the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Conference tagged “Land of
Promise 2016” held from Monday 21st to Friday 25th November, 2016 at
Ibom Tropicana Conference Centre, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. This was done in
collaboration with the Federation of African Engineering Organisation (FAEO)
and the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The President of NSE, Engr. Otis
Anyaeji, FNSE, FAEng welcomed the dignitaries and affirmed that Nigerian engineers
are very competent and compare favourably with their foreign counterparts. He
emphasised the need for governments at federal and state levels to consider
professionalism in appointments of Heads of Engineering based Ministries,
Departments and Agencies.
The Conference was declared open by
the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, His Excellency, Mr. Udom Emmanuel.
He thanked the NSE for bringing this very important Conference to his State and
further appreciated the contributions of Nigerian engineers in national
development. He emphasised that every aspect of life and development has
engineering content and then assured NSE of his readiness to host the
Conference in future.
The President of FAEO, Engr Mustafa B.
Shehu, FNSE, FSESN and Presidents of some African Engineering Organisations
namely: Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Rwanda graced the opening
ceremony. The keynote address was given by Dr Enang Moma a representative of
UNESCO Multi Sectoral Regional Office Director, Abuja. There were eight (8) invited
papers and forty (40) technical papers. The National Spouses’ Forum donated a
Solar powered borehole with 1000 gallons overhead, and 500 gallons ground tanks
installed at the Primary Healthcare Centre Ikot Aya Ikono. The borehole system
was commissioned on 22nd November 2016 by the wife of the Akwa Ibom
State Governor, H.E. Deaconess Martha Udom Emmanuel.
After fruitful deliberations, the
following observations and recommendations were made:
1.
RENEWABLE
ENERGY
Observations/Recommendations
The Conference observed that though
Africa is endowed with huge resources for renewable energy, meeting the
enormous energy demand for development in Africa has been a challenge. The
Conference therefore made the following recommendations:
a) African Governments should develop the
political will to harness renewable energy resources as well as imbibe energy
efficiency and best practices to optimize energy demand.
b) African Governments should strengthen
human skills and infrastructural capacities in their various Countries to
handle renewable energy technologies.
c) Governments
and the private sector should
invest more on R&D required to improve efficiencies and bring down cost of
renewable energy technologies.
d) Energy resources should be diversified
to include other sources such as Hydro Power, Biomass, solar, wind and tidal
systems.
2.
ELECTRICITY
Observations / Recommendations
The Conference noted the crucial role
of regulations in enhancing the reliability and sustainability of energy
systems and observed that the African Electricity market is still facing
numerous challenges ranging from the following: inability of Generating
Stations (GenCos) and Distributing Companies (Discos) to invest in the system
and increase capacities; inadequate metering of consumers, several transmission
bottlenecks; poor quality of services; inability of the gas suppliers to make
available gas to the power plants.
Lack of access and reliable energy
supply to rural dwellers has undermined the economic activities in the rural
areas inhibiting establishment of small and medium scale enterprises thereby
escalating poverty levels despite high potentials for economic activities that
will improve the nation’s food security
Conference therefore recommends that:
a)
The
Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and other Electricity
regulatory Commissions in African Countries should strengthen their regulatory
mechanisms for energy savings and efficiency in the Market.
b)
The Electricity
Regulatory Commission should use their powers to enforce the commitments made
by the Discos on closing the metering gap as contained in their business plans
during the privatization of the entities.
c)
To
improve on power supply for sustainability, effective commercial framework for
supply of gas to power plants has to be ensured through formidable
“Gas-to-Power Policy for sustainability of fuel supply.
d)
The Gas Sales
and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) should be reviewed, Gas Transportation Agreement,
cost reflective tariffs for gas supply and transportation.
e)
Public-Private
Partnership project implementation should be adequately monitored to ensure
compliance.
The Conference noted that the Power
Transmission infrastructure is grossly inadequate and do not have the modern
equipment for operation and management.
The Conference therefore recommends:
a.
Urgent
Intervention in transmission to enable sourcing of funds to strengthen and
expand the transmission network for reliability.
b.
As the
industry relies on most of its operational equipment and spare parts on
importation, African Governments should look into the possibility of
intervention in the provision of FOREX for
procurement of critical equipment and parts while local production is
encouraged through credit facilities with low interest rates and waivers.
c.
For Nigeria,
the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing
(FMoPW&H), should prevail on the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) management
to evolve innovative means of managing the transmission resources.
3.
OIL AND GAS
Observations/Recommendations
It was noted that in Africa especially
Nigeria, the energy situation is vulnerable because there is inefficient and inadequate
refining capacity in the countries. In addition, there is inadequate gas
transmission infrastructure.
The conference therefore recommends
a)
Optimum
utilization of existing refineries and facilitation of establishment of
additional refineries.
b)
There is
need for co-operation amongst West African and other regional member states towards
establishing regional energy hubs that will guarantee sustainability in supply
of gas in the future.
c)
Also,
member states should strive to develop their internal gas market, and remove
both commercial and regulatory barriers in order to make it easy to access
regional gas hubs. This is necessary to launch the region in the right track to
an effective regional gas market
4.
WASTE TO ENERGY
Observations/
Recommendations
The Conference
observed that
Africa is
challenged with dwindling fossil fuel sources and growing concerns about
climate change, effective waste disposal technique and pollution control.
Energy generation capacity in Nigeria for example is grossly inadequate at per
capita generation rate of approximately 23.6Watts with a municipal solid waste
load of about 40,959 tonnes per day, projected to reach 101,307 tonnes per day
by 2025 based on 2012 World bank estimate. Wastes to energy are an area that
has a lot of energy mix potential for Nigeria but is yet to be developed.
The Conference therefore recommends
that:
a)
African Governments
should put in place policies, institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks
for development of waste- to -energy with incentives that will encourage
research and investment.
b)
Governments
in conjunction with Private Sectors should implement Installation of biomass
gasifier plants and some small sized rotary dryers for provision of reliable
heating for drying and electricity for rural enterprises thus increasing the
income generated by the rural communities.
c)
African
Governments should adopt appropriate waste to energy conversion Technology
especially anaerobic digestion to sustainably generate electricity from organic
materials and agricultural waste through primary product biogas which is eco-friendly.
5.
2017 EXECUTIVE OFFICERS:
With the collaboration of
NSE and the NigComSat Ltd, the Society successfully deployed e-voting, wholly developed
by Nigerian Engineers, for the election of the following officers to run its
affairs in 2017:
i.
Engr. Otis Anyaeji, FNSE -
President
ii.
Engr. Adekunle O Mokuolu FNSE - Deputy
President
iii. Engr. Gidari Tasiu, Wudil FNSE - Vice President
iv. Engr. Dr. Mrs Edith Ishidi, FNSE
- Vice President
v.
Engr. Joseph Akinteye, FNSE -Vice
President
vi. Engr. Mrs. Halimat Adediran, MNSE - Executive Committee Member
vii. Engr. Ibitoye Adeniran, FNSE - Executive
Committee Member
viii. Engr. Nkemnasom S E Eziokwu, MNSE - Executive Committee Member
ix. Engr. Yakubu Ali Garba, FNSE - Executive Committee Member
x.
Engr. Jide Atandeyi, FNSE -
Executive Committee Member
xi. Engr. Nnenna C Igwegbe, MNSE - Executive Committee Member
xii. Engr. Ademola I. Olorunfemi,
FNSE – Immediate Past President
xiii. Engr. Olusola Obadimu,
MNSE - Executive Secretary
Engr. Olusola Obadimu, MNSE
Executive Secretary
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