With the prevalence of counterfeited products surfacing across Nigeria, the United Nations Environment Programme has said that the country would be saving about $1.3 billion yearly by immediately hulking the use of air conditioners and refrigerators which have energy efficiency standards that fall short of the global Minimum Energy Performance Standard. This was indicated in their recently published report, titled “Project Overview of Scaling-Up Energy Efficient and Climate Friendly Cooling in Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution Revision.”
Brian Holuj, the Programme Management Officer of UNEP, explained that Nigeria’s NDC attainment would significantly affect the country’s energy savings. In an analysis aimed at determining the impact of air conditioners, with reference to the MEPs in Nigeria, the report concluded that the electricity consumption by ACs would increase by 590 percent. The report also suggested that basic policies could sufficiently reduce the electricity demand increase to 410 percent, with stringent policies probably cutting the demand growth to about 275 percent.
NCDMB leveraging on an enablement of the business environment pillar.
Continually, the report stated that the annual saving for electricity consumption for 2040 was 12TWh, equivalent to five-plus power stations of 500MW each. It further noted that the objectives energy efficient and climate-friendly cooling project was aimed at conducting a market assessment on ACs, leveraging the existing data, recommend protocols for monitoring, verification and enforcement, and coordinating awareness campaigns for vendors and consumers. The report indicated that important components such as the selling of energy efficiency products, financial incentive support, market monitoring and verification compliance were needed to transform the AC market.
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) however disclosed that it was to leverage on enabling the business environment pillar of its 10 year strategic roadmap to partner with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to establish a platform for engaging stakeholders of the oil and gas industry on tax incentives which were available to companies willing to invest in Research and Development. Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary for NCDMB made this known during his welcome address at the Nigerian oil and gas industry supplier incentive awareness workshop, organized by the Board of FIRS in Yenagoa, Benue State.
Companies to be educated on incentives, tax regimes and benefits of R&D.
He indicated that with the advise of experts, there was a need to further propagate, as well as educate companies within the sector on incentives, tax regimes and available benefits for research and development within the country’s tax code. Wabote noted that the Federal Inland Revenue, via its established workshops, would make provision of critical insight into the incentives inherent Finance Act 2021, with ways by which companies investing in R&D could possibly benefit from tax credits.
It was again noted that opportunities existed within Nigeria’s tax laws for the industry to enjoy benefits was derived from the investment in Research and Development. It was again highlighted that workshops like this was a means of providing necessary awareness to help businesses position themselves to benefit from using research as a significant piece of their business models. He expressed his high hopes at the workshop curbing the gross underfunding of researches in Nigeria, which is presently estimated at less than 0.2 percent of the National Budget.
Wabote stresses that R&D would no longer be neglected.
The NCDMB Secretary further pointed out his expectations that through the overt awareness that the workshop would create, the private sector would be able to reverse the trend. He stressed that R&D could no longer be neglected, as it was very important to local content development, enhancement of future tax revenue, development of local solutions, as well as the retention of the industry spending within the country’s financial institution. He explained that the attainment of a sustainable R&D investment culture would be mutually beneficial to both the private and public sectors.
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