Academy to Train 1000 Nigerians in Renewable Energy

The Renewable Energy Academy of West Africa has concluded plans to train 1000 Nigerians in Renewable Energy application and entrepreneurship by 2012 in support of the much needed infrastructural development and youth employment in the region.

According to Emmanuel Emielu, the Chief Executive of the Academy, “we must invest in developing the entrepreneurial and technical skills needed to achieve a massive diffusion of renewable energy technology in Nigeria and across Africa because it is the entrepreneurs that will create the jobs and make the investments for the growth of the sector”.

Emielu, who is also a member of the African Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA), disclosed that the Academy has laid out a number of specialised programmes with the support of her German partners, RENAC AG, and other sponsors.  Top on the list are an international seminar in Ghana this April, and a Renewable Energy Business Summit in Abuja in October. Others include the Renewable Energy Summer School Programme for Nigerian youths, he added.

He disclosed further that the Ghana seminar which will be on “Understanding  Renewable Energy Operations” is to take place from April 12-15, and will help participants understand the technical, operational, and business dimensions of this important but emerging industry. They will learn to identify possible areas of business opportunity for further pursui tincluding the peculiar requirements for the finance, insurance, and management of renewable energy projects, he said.

At a time the world is experiencing a wave of environmental disasters, analysts believe investment in renewables is an opportunity whose time has come. Renewable Energy, as a development enabler, may well become elusive for Nigeria and Africa, except there is a massive attention to entrepreneurial education and skills development, he warned.