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Some members of the newly launched Nigeria energy access taskforce

Campaign Update: February 2018

Nigeria Electricity Access Taskforce Established

A partnership between Power Africa, the US Global Development Lab, USAID Nigeria, FHI360 and Power for All launched a decentralized renewable energy (DRE) taskforce in Nigeria to accelerate modern electricity access initiatives. DRE solutions are an important tool for Nigeria to better exploit the full range of its renewable energy resources, especially with delivering energy to remote communities. The partnership was formed under the Scaling Off Grid Energy (SOGE) Grand Challenge for Development, which aims to accelerate growth of DRE solutions and provide 20 million households in sub-Saharan Africa with access to modern, clean and affordable electricity.

The taskforce has nearly three dozen members drawn from government, donors, renewable energy companies, development finance institutions, investors, civil society organizations, and trade associations. It aims to support specific stakeholder-led actions that further the goals and vision of the Nigerian government’s commitment to increasing power access and the rate of electrification to rural areas. The formation of the taskforce also builds upon Power for All’s Nigeria-focused Call to Action in March 2017, where stakeholders in the renewable energy industry (government, private sector, civil society organizations, investors, and donor agencies) each made a set of credible commitments to take action in support of the DRE market.

Power for All also kicked off regional workshops around Nigeria based on two projects it is currently implementing: “Reducing Black Carbon Emissions by Transitioning to Clean and Sustainable Lighting”, which focuses at phasing out kerosene lamps in Nigeria and promoting a market transition to DRE and energy-efficient lighting products (funded by the United Nation Environmental Program and the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC); and a series of DRE 101 workshops for policymakers under the SOGE initiative. Power for All will hold regional workshops in half a dozen locations across the country with policymakers, faith-based institutions, academics, market groups, civil society and trade associations.

To keep up to date on our activities in Nigeria, bookmark our Nigeria website page, which we’ll be updating regularly.

Campaign Partner FSR Launches Online Course

Regulation for Universal Access to Energy”, a new online course from the Florence School of Regulation (FSR), launches March 5 to provide a comprehensive vision of how to design appropriate policy and regulatory frameworks needed to ensure sustainable energy for all, touching on technologies, finance, business models and regulatory instruments. Power for All’s head of research, Dr. Rebekah Shirley, and our national campaign manager for Sierra Leone, Ami Dumbuya, are both part of the course faculty. Watch this video to learn more, and be sure to register.

Research & Platform for Energy Access Knowledge (PEAK)

PEAK formalized a Steering Committee, which had its kick-off meeting in February. The Steering Committee is a diverse representation of technology, data, research and industry experts from across the Global North and South.

Power for All is also supporting research and data sharing in a direct, hands on ways in Nairobi, Kenya, where PEAK is based. Power for All, in partnership with partners Hivos, Practical Action and wPower launched the Kenya Energy Access Research Working Group. The Working Group convenes actors in the local Kenya energy access space to support coordinated, organized, efficient activity among researchers with the aim of faster action and more meaningful impact realization. Our first meeting for the year was in February, and there was a great turn out A strong theme that came out of the group is the need for better science communication.

Speaking of science communication, Rebekah also gave a talk at the Manchester University's energy access workshop in Nairobi in January. She spoke about the statistics underpinning our last “Call to Action”, about the relationships between policy and market growth.

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PEAK director Dr. Rebekah Shirley speaking at a Nairobi energy access workshop

 

Energy Access Project India Energy Access Summit

Campaign CEO Kristina Skierka joined the launch of the Energy Access Project, a new interdisciplinary effort under Duke University that supports foundational research and fosters constructive dialogue among policy makers, entrepreneurs, and scholars to identify ways of applying that research. Our colleague William Brent also participated in the 3rd India Energy Access Summit, moderating a session on India’s leadership in electricity access and the path to universal household electrification.

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