9 December 2011, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – Nigeria has commenced production of its solar panels for electricity purposes, becoming the third country in Africa, outside South Africa and Egypt, to do so.
Minister of Science and Technology, Professor Ita Okon Bassey Ewa, dropped the hints Thursday during a consultation visit to the Minister of Power, Professor Bart Nnaji.
Mrs Greyne Anosike, Head, Media and Public Relations at the Ministry, quoted the minister as saying that the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has successfully produced solar panels of international standard.
This, according to the minister, would now bridge the quantum of foreign exchange being spent on importing panels from Asia and Europe annually.
With the development, Nigeria joins Egypt and South Africa as the only African nations with the technological capacity to mass produce solar panels.
Prof. Ewa was accompanied on the visit by his Permanent Secretary, Dr. Dare Awosika and the Director General of NASENI, Prof. O. Adewuye.
He told the Power Minister that they came to show solidarity with the efforts of his ministry to translate Nigerian dream into reality and to seek areas of collaboration in defining ways in which science and engineering could impact and drive rural development.
Ewa called for good partnership between the two ministries to drive the solar panel technology in Karchi, Abuja, forward.
According to him, the Science and Technology Ministry believes that given the difficult terrain in some parts of the country, clusters of electricity generating units as dams, wind and solar would be the best option forward.
He disclosed that his Ministry had done extensive studies relating to them and would invite the Power Minister to see them soon.
The Minister said, “on wind energy, we have produced wind map for the country, which tells us where we have the strongest wind velocity for power generation”.
