Ekene Odigwe

“To be passionate about Africa is to believe in Africa, understand Africa.”

The above words from Jean Claude Bastos De Morais, founding board member of African Innovation Foundation (AIF), were enough motivation for Justus Nwaoga, the Chief Technologist in the Department of Pharmaceutical and Medicinal Chemistry, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to begin the journey of changing Nigeria’s electricity supply via renewable energy.

Pharmacist Justus Nwaoga set out a project solely focused on Africa’s solar energy market, believing that it is possible to have clean, renewable solar energy powered by African solar panels.

He arrived at an understanding that Mimosa can utilise solar power system, so he converted Mimosa’s sensitivity to sunlight into what is now called the Mimosa Solar Panels. In a nation where there are complains about power outage, recession and lack of opportunities, Michael is seeing the need to provide that which is lacking.

He is solving the power challenge, using his own invention because he understands how dependency on energy is the key to unlocking potentials and market values. Think about it, his invention is 100 per cent novel and the power is energy-saving, solar, clean and renewable.

This is sustainable energy, using the organic medicinal African weed, mimosa pudica commonly known as “touch and die.” “This plant, he began,” is a common weed around us; children sometimes play with it, when someone touches it, it closes itself and after sometime it will reopen.”

So as a pharmacist, I wasn’t really looking at the weed, I was fascinated at its reaction to sunlight and got more interested in what’s making it react to radiation. I was certain this would be a huge business opportunity that will not only change the solar power market but also provide jobs for the unemployed.

It is a fact that one in five people still lacks access to modern electricity, as 3 billion people globally rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating. More so, research has also shown that energy is the dominant contributor to climate change, because it is accounts for around 60 per cent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, reducing the carbon intensity of energy is a key objective in long-term climate goals now.

If we are to ensure access to affordable, reliable and modern energy, all has to come one step closer to embracing recent progress in electrification, particularly in local development councils, However, national priorities and policy ambitions still need to be strengthened to put the world on track, to meet the energy targets for 2030. From 2000 to 2016, the proportion of the global population with access to electricity increased from 78 per cent to 87 per cent, with the absolute number of people living without electricity dipping to just below 1 billion.

Green finance is one business opportunity people can tap into. It is an opening that centres on supporting local, community-level projects, with an emphasis on sustainable, ecologically friendly agriculture.

Green finance is usually concerned with providing educational opportunities, funding for artistic endeavours and projects that support local ecology. A typical example is the recent upward review of Solar Energy Fund of the Bank of Industry (BOI) to N6 billion.

The fund is to enable various categories of end-users (commercial and residential) acquire reliable solar solutions. As opposed to more conventional companies in the world of finance, green finance is preoccupied with social profitability.

While monetary profit remains important, the goal of green finance is to support beneficial projects that provide value to the local community and ecology. In fact, green financial institutions can fill a void to realise a positive project that otherwise would not exist that truly benefits the community.

Today, four-fifths of all electricity in southern and eastern Africa is generated from fossil fuels, which process involves burning these fuels to produce carbon dioxide emissions that trap the sun’s energy, thereby making our Earth too warm and contributes to extreme weather events.

But this is also where alternative cleaner energy, known as renewable energy sources, offer tremendous potential.

With the right infrastructure, half of all electricity in southern and eastern Africa could come from clean, cost-effective renewable source by 2030. We would then see a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.

In the least developed countries, the proportion of people with access to electricity more than doubled between 2000 and 2016. In 2016, 3 billion people (41 per cent of the world’s population) were still cooking with polluting fuel and stove combinations. The share of renewable in final energy consumption increased modestly from 17.3 per cent in 2014 to 17.5 per cent in 2015. Yet, only 55 per cent of the renewable share was derived from modern forms of renewable energy. Global energy intensity decreased by 2.8 per cent from 2014 to 2015, double the rate of improvement seen between 1990 and 2010.

Today, consumers are just as interested in corporate social responsibility (CSR) as they are in a company's products and services. This is especially good news for eco-minded entrepreneurs. Uzochukwu Mbamalu, a 2014 graduate of Electronic Engineering from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka is solving energy needs through solar technology and distributed generation. He has eight full-time staff and 20 contract staff depending on the project and the demand.

“I also collaborate with people in the industry because I believe that it helps to give competitive advantage,” he said. His final project in the university was a solar-tracking system to conserve energy

Nigeria is blessed with abundantly: Renewable energy resources, such as solar, wind, hydropower, biomass, geothermal, ocean waves and tides. Despite this, the nation continues to grapple with substantial electricity deficit. Nowadays, the demand for solar arrangement as an alternate source of energy is growing very fast.

This, alone, provides a vista of opportunities to entrepreneurial minds. Think eco-consulting, for instance. As an expert on green living, one could easily start an eco-consulting service, relying on friends and colleagues to spread the news and additionally employ social media tools to strategise.

Consultants evaluate homes and offices, and offer solutions to make them more environmentally friendly. One could advise clients on switching their home appliances to more energy-efficient machines or implement a recycling programme. To enhance their credibility, they need to become certified eco-consultants.

•Odigwe is SDGs champion/Social media campaigner; OAP @frcnsoutheast.

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