Niger to Implement Renewable Energy Programs to Alleviate Poverty

Niger’s Mines and Energy Minister Mohamed Abdoulahi stated on Monday that his government will implement a program for the use of renewable energy in order to alleviate the suffering of women in the country.

He said this as Niger, in common with other Sahelo-Saharan (CEN-SAD) member countries, celebrated the Solar Energy Day.

The CEN-SAD Executive Council established the Solar Energy Day in 2005 following a proposal by Niger, which hosted the first meeting for renewable energy markets in the Sahel and West Africa in Niamey in 2006.

“The Niger government wants to encourage the use of renewable energies through poverty reduction programs and the alleviation of women’s chores in particular,” he said.

He said energy is part of the priorities in Niger’s fast track development and poverty reduction strategy and a law on renewable energies is underway “with the aim of encouraging the large-scale use of renewable energy technologies”.

He said renewable energies are raising “great hopes for satisfying the growing need for energy at the global level”.

Abdoulahi regretted that despite the adoption of the national strategy on renewable energies in 2004, achievements are still “very marginal compared to the scope of needs”.

In Niger, a country which is three-quarters desert, renewable energies contributes less than 0.1% of the national energy inventory.

Niger co-chaired the June 2004 international conference on renewable energies in Bonn, Germany, and is a pioneer in renewable energy resources through the work of physicist Abdou Moumouni. The university in Niamey is named after him.

Moumouni (1929-1992) “anticipated the pressure of climate change by manifesting a passion for the use and promotion of renewable energies,” Abdoulahi said.

Source African Press Agency

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