Babajide Okeowo
In an attempt to prevent Nigeria from becoming the dumping ground for substandard cooling devices like Air Conditioners and freezers, the Minister of Science and Technology, Sen. Olorunnimbe Mamora has urged the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to be ‘alive to their responsibilities’.
He gave this charge in Abuja during a stakeholders’ consultative workshop on energy efficiency and climate change organised by the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and other relevant stakeholders.
Mamora said in order for ECN to achieve the goal of the workshop, there must be partnerships with the relevant stakeholders.
According to him, there must be monitoring and compliance with protocols to meet the minimum standards necessary for energy efficiency and climate cooling in Nigeria.
“The Customs, SON and other relevant agencies need to be alive to their responsibilities and ensure that Nigeria does not become a dumping ground, where you just bring in all sorts of products they are not in line, they are not in tandem to what we expect by way of standard,” he said.
He admonished the stakeholders to collaborate to address the looming danger of environmental challenges such as carbon emission, and depletion of the ozone layer.
According to him, for humans to triumph over the threat, there must be the adoption of self-survival and self -preservation as their watchwords.
Mamora noted that Nigeria is the largest market in Africa as well as the fastest growing global market for cooling devices.
He expressed regret that most of the cooling devices imported into the country are inferior ones.
“Unfortunately, most of the air conditioners utilized in the country have an energy efficiency ratio below internationally acceptable minimum energy performance standard.
That is what I refer to earlier in a situation where you allow all sorts of substandard air-conditioners to come into the country should no longer be allowed. Consequently, the importance of this workshop on scaling up energy-efficient and climate-friendly cooling in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized,” he said.
On his part, the ECN Director General, Prof. Eli Jidere Bala, recalled that with the support of Japan International Corporation, the agency had in 2017 conducted an energy audit in selected public buildings in Abuja which revealed that over 60% of electricity consumed in public buildings was from space cooling.
He noted that 80 per cent of the electricity supplied in Nigeria is from fossil energy, which is the greatest emitter of carbon monoxide emission.
Bala recalled that on February 3, 2023, the project of scaling up energy-efficient and climate-friendly cooling in Nigeria was launched.
According to him, the project is aimed at accelerating the transition to climate–friendly low-global warming potential refrigerant and energy-efficient ACs in Nigeria, thereby contributing to meeting Nigeria’s climate target as stated in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in a cost-effective and sustainable manner.