Nigerian Manufacturers Eye Lower Output Costs with €70m Energy Facility

Manufacturers in Nigeria can reduce their energy cost by about 40 per cent if they key into a new €70 million renewable energy and energy efficiency facility backed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and European Union Infrastructure Trust Fund (EU-ITF), THISDAY has learnt.

The facility – the Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Energy Finance (SUNREF), is a green financing line for businesses. It was developed by the AFD and EU-ITF to give technical assistance for the development of green energy projects in Nigeria and support the country’s manufacturers to adopt proactive energy efficient practices.

SUNREF was recently launched in Nigeria with the €70 million portfolio respectively segmented into €60 million funding and €9.5 million investment grant for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.

Through the grant, the SUNREF Nigeria programme will provide technical assistance to support the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), partner banks - Access Bank and the United Bank for Africa (UBA), as well as medium scale companies in Nigeria towards the development of energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy (RE) projects.

“It is going to vary from member to member depending on their energy usage, but in most cases when somebody will go into your company and do energy audit and see what can be done, most people can save at least, it is always usually 30 to 40 per cent; and they are not unusual in terms of energy savings, both from the energy efficiency side and some renewable energy systems that can be applicable,” said Javier Betancourt, who is the Team Leader for the SUNREF Nigeria Programme during a webinar to launch the programme.

Betancourt, further explained that while it is difficult to give a particular number on how much cost members of the MAN could save in this regard, he added, “we think that anybody that isn’t saving 30 to 40 per cent really hasn’t structured this project appropriately because there is so much that can be done.”

He noted that: “There is so much space on the energy efficiency side which is needed by everyone in Nigeria and the renewable energy side where we can do solar photovoltaic or biomass. There is so much solutions out there that really the manufacturers association can be satisfied to get.”

According to the SUNREF team, in Nigeria where access to energy is far from universal, limited energy security and rising energy prices will likely continue to challenge the growth of Nigerian businesses in the near future.

They stated that: “As a result,