By Michael Eboh

Century Power, a subsidiary of the Obijackson Group, has announced plans to boost Nigeria’s electricity generating capacity by 500 megawatts (MW). In a statement by the company, Chief Executive officer and Group Managing Director of The Obijackson Group, Mr. Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi , who was speaking on the Powering Africa panel, at the third annual London School of Economics Africa Summit, however, expressed worry about the numerous hurdles prevalent in Nigeria which had led to   delay in the delivery.

File: Nuclear power Plant

He listed some of the challenges faced by the power firms and other businesses to include political risk, the difficulties posed by legal requirements for disposition of land posed by the Land Use Act, inefficiencies in government agencies and the high threat to and cost of doing business.

He maintained that these are only some of the factors among numerous other factors that had served in frustrating efficiency of businesses.

Azudialu-Obiejesi further tasked stakeholders to develop means on how to ensure funding in a hospitable environment and how to private and government responsibility to efficiently power Africa. In addition, he challenged claims that African needs to go green now even though all realistic indications pointed that the continent is not ready.

According to him, amidst such idealistic and over-simplified calls for greener energy on the African continent, stakeholders need to be reminded of the link between access to electricity and development on the continent that made it a top and urgent priority. He disclosed that while the West had used carbon-based energy to develop its infrastructure, Africa has to also go through the trajectory and learn from the challenges they had faced.

“Unfortunately, the abundance of already available resources make carbon-based energy resources the short-term project, while the financial and technical constraints to developing renewable energy sources make it a long-term mission,” he argued.

Azudialu-Obiejesi, the statement said sat on the panel alongside major players in the energy sector, including Martin Bratt, Partner at McKinsey and Company; Oluseyi Makinde, Group Managing Director and founder of Makon Group; Remigius Makumbe, Director of Infrastructure and Services of the Southern African Development Community.

The statement noted that the conference considered Africa in a global context and opened a lively discourse on how to create and nurture future African business leaders with a global focus, adding that the discussion aimed to troubleshoot the obstacles to growth across the African energy, finance, technology and telecommunications industries, and the ever-pressing issue of human capital.

The summit boasted an impressive line-up of speakers, including its keynote speakers; His Excellency Atiku Abubakar the former Nigerian Vice-President, who opened the Philanthropy panel, His Excellency Akinwunmi Ambode, Governor of Lagos State and Her Honour Inonge Wina, Vice President of Zambia.

The Powering Africa panel, the statement added, focussed on the challenges the African energy industry currently faces, specifically how to create an efficient and sustainable power supply in Africa as the rest of the world turns to greener energy sources, while it also considered the need for infrastructure in the energy sector in order to boost economic growth and the role of government in future of the industry.