Against the backdrop of successes recorded courtesy of its highbrow “Grenadines Home Arepo” in Ogun State, bigwig property developer, the Lagos-based Messrs Propertymart Real Estate Investment Limited, has introduced a similar concept in Abuja. This time around, the firm is building the “Grenadines Home Lokogoma”, in respect of which construction commences.
Located in a quiet and serene community in Lokogoma District around the Games Village in Abuja, “Grenadines Home Lokogoma” sits on a five-hectare stretch of land, with about 2,000 square metres reserved for recreation facilities and open spaces.
At the estate, Propertymart is building for sale homes such as the four-bedroom terrace house (with a boys’ quarter), four-bedroom semi-detached duplex (also with a boys’ quarter) and five-bedroom fully detached duplex. Some of the houses display penthouses with roof-top terraces for relaxation, loft-styled finish, personal car parking, glass curtain walling, Jacuzzi and unique colour finishing.
The entire estate will be equipped with facilities such as swimming pool, gym and lawn tennis court. The estate has close proximity with the popular Games Village and other adjourning estates. It is about 15 minutes’ drive to the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport and also 15 minutes’ drive from the Central Business District of Abuja. Located in a residential area, it is about 10 minutes from Shoprite, touted as Africa’s largest shopping mall.
While a terrace home sells for N36.5 million, the semi-detached duplex goes for N45 million, and the fully detached duplex sells for N55 million. Officials of Propertymart disclosed that the listed prices are discounted promo prices and would likely rise after the close of the promo.
According to them, a beneficiary can either make outright payment or pay instalmentally after making an initial 10 percent deposit of the total cost of the unit.
Initiated through a partnership agreement between Propertymart and Omega Homes Limited, the “Grenadines Home Lokogoma” is targeting the middle and high income class.
The Lagos-based architectural firm of Messrs Play In Architecture Limited designed the estate and the dwelling units, while Messrs Billing Cost & Associates are quantity surveyors to the project.
On what informed the choice of Abuja for the estate, Mr. Adeyemi Adeniyi, Propertymart’s Branch Head in Abuja, said: “We want to repeat the same feat we have recorded in the South-West over the on-going construction of ‘Grenadines Arepo,’ where the civil engineering infrastructure is being handled by the PW Group, and the Grenadines Magodo GRA.
“Apart from desiring quality homes to be delivered at an affordable rate and on time, we want to stand out in the real estate market and raise the standard being set by developers on construction of housing projects in Abuja. The aim is also to advance the economy through real estate.”
According to him, Propertymart nurses an ambition to build more estates in Abuja upon the completion of Grenadines Homes Lokogoma. He added that other cities being targeted by Propertymart include some unexplored areas in Ogun State, Port Harcourt in Rivers State and Karu in Nassarawa State.
Besides Grenadines Home Lokogoma, Propertymart has also developed estates such as Grenadines Life Camp, Abuja; Grenadines Magodo GRA; Grenadines Home Arepo; Mainland Gardens, Mowe; Palms Gardens, Mowe; and Palms Gardens, Kuje Abuja.
As one of the 20 beneficiary countries to the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP), Nigerian journalists have been actively involved in a series of local and international training workshops under the programme’s media development scheme.
So far, three sessions that involved Nigerians have held under the AAP media project, which is being coordinated by Nairobi, Kenya-based United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and Washington, USA-based International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ).
Sam Adejuwon, National Coordinator, AAP Nigeria
The scheme is aimed at building the capacity of journalists in the 20 AAP countries to report on, and raise public understanding of the need to mainstream climate resilience into national development strategies.
Five Lagos- and Abuja-based environmental journalists in the print, broadcast and online media represented the country during the flagship international training session in Koforidua, Ghana from September 12 to 14, 2011. The journalists were: Doris Okenwa (Channels TV, Abuja), Kayode Aboyeji (Nigerian Compass, Lagos), Tina Ogbonna-Armstrong (Choice FM, Lagos), Alex Abutu (AfricaSTI.com, Abuja) and Michael Simire (Independent Newspapers, Lagos).
They were part of a group of 20 journalists from Ghana, Nigeria, Lesotho, Namibia and Sao Tome/Principe, which form Cluster D, one of the four clusters under the programme. A Ghanaian journalist, Mary Ama Kudom-Agyemang, who is coordinating Cluster D country activities, is one of the four coordinators hired to facilitate and spearhead the project implementation in the cluster countries.
Kudom-Agyemang and Jacqueline Frank (Regional Project Coordinator of the AAP Media Capacity Development) facilitated the workshop.
Other participating countries were: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Tunisia.
The training enhanced participants’ skills to better inform the public with their reportage by enhancing the quality of reporting, through making stories locally relevant, and inclusive of otherwise marginalised voices.
The Koforidua forum was followed by in-country trainings that featured journalists from selected media houses within each country. In Nigeria, 19 out of the earmarked 20 participants gathered at the Peninsula Resort Hotel, Lekki in Lagos from October 17 to 19, 2011.
They included Thomas Adejo (New Nigeria Newspaper, Kaduna), Damian Daga (The Voice Newspaper, Makurdi), Bilikisu Hassan (Pyramid Radio, Kano), Femichit Yarnap (Nigeria Television Authority – NTA, Jos), Diana-Mary Nsan (Cross River Broadcasting Corporation, Calabar), Chidi Nnadi (The Sun Newspaper, Enugu), Chinyere Opia (Hot FM, Owerri), David Obi (Beat FM, Port Harcourt) and Jacqueline Ogoh (Voice of America, Lagos).
Others were Chinyere Amalu (Leadership Newspaper, Abuja), Vivienne Irikefe (Thisday Online, Lagos), Tunde Akingbade (The Guardian on Sunday Newspaper, Lagos), Ugochi Anyaka (Aso Radio FM, Abuja), Jennifer Igwe (NTA, Lagos), Shingdon Bala (Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria – FRCN, Kaduna), Laide Akinboade (Vanguard Newspaper, Abuja), Comfort Agbai (Metro FM Radio/FRCN, Lagos) and Okwy Iroegbu (The Nation Newspaper, Lagos).
The workshop was facilitated by Kudom-Agyemang (Cluster D Team Leader), Michael Simire (Training Assistant) and Geoffrey Omedo (AAP Programme Research Associate).
Just like the international session that held in Ghana, participants were exposed to relevant issues such as the elements of climate change reporting, climate change and gender, social media, investigative journalism and the scope of climate change reporting. The training was interactive and it involved discussions, exercises and field trips to the offices of the Lagos State Waste Management Authority (LAWMA) and two sites along the Lagos Lekki Peninsula shoreline ravaged by coastal erosion and ocean surge.
The fourth day of the event featured visits by the facilitators to media institutions such as Metro FM Radio/FRCN, Independent Newspapers and Development Communications Network (Devcoms). The idea is to build a constituency that will appreciate and support African journalists to highlight climate change issues in their reportage.
Seeking the support of the senior media officials, Kudom-Agyemang said, “African media can play a key role in influencing public and private opinion by effectively and accurately investigating, interpreting and reporting on climate change issues and events. The AAP seeks to enhance discussion of climate change by print, broadcast and web-based journalists and other media professionals, and build their capacity to raise awareness among multiple stakeholders.”
The Lagos in-country workshop was followed by a Training of Trainers (TOT) course, which held in Nairobi, Kenya from January 16 to 20, 2012. Besides Simire (Nigeria), other participants at the weeklong event were Fredrick Asiamah (Ghana), Abdoulaye Barry (Senegal), Ben Chokri (Tunisia), Erick Kabendera (Tanzania), Joseph Leger (Cameroon), Emery Mandilou (Republic of Congo), Charles Mangwiro (Mozambique), Marafaele Mohloboli (Lesotho), Emmanuel Muwamba (Malawi) and Beatrice Obwocha (Kenya).
Others included Liliane Oyoue (Gabon), Nicholas Rainer (Mauritius), Djibril Saidou (Niger), Rachid Tarki (Morocc), Mekonnen Tollera (Ethiopia), Laetitia Umuhoza (Rwanda) and Annelien Van Wyk (Namibia).
Apart from Kudom-Agyemang, the other cluster country activities coordinators under the programme (Joachim Buwembo from Tanzania, Mamadou Ndiaye from Senegal and Emmanuel Wongibe from Cameroon) were also part of the TOT event, which likewise featured Frank, Omedo, Charles Dickson (AAP Communications Specialist), Luke Dunstan (AAP Communications Officer), Gifti Nadi (AAP Communications Specialist), Michelle Betz (ICFJ Programme Manager) and Justin Arenstein (ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellow).
The TOT orientation produced a cadre of experienced climate change journalists who will be leading workshops and capacity building activities in their own countries. The orientation also represents a fresh phase of the AAP Media Capacity Development project, which will culminate in, besides the emergence of new trainers, the production of a Guide to Climate Change Adaptation Journalism, and a Media Resource Library.
The AAP was established under the Japan-United Nations Development Programme Joint Framework for Building Partnership to Address Climate Change in Africa, which was founded at the Fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) in May 2008.
The $92.1 million programme, funded by the Government of Japan, was launched in 2009 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Programme (UNIDO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). The AAP runs until the end of 2012.
By investing in infrastructure, security and the people, depressed cities in Nigeria can be turned around – just as examples in the United States have shown.
US Ambassador to Nigeria, Terrence McCulley, who made the submission recently in a presentation at the 50th Anniversary Lecture of the University of Lagos’ Faculty of Environmental Sciences, urged the authorities to embrace good governance in order to address socio-economic challenges.
Using three American urban centres – Portland, Seattle and New York – as examples, he illustrates how a previously distressed city can be transformed.
While Portland revitalised its economy and saved itself from decline by improving transportation links and making the downtown area a nicer place to be, Seattle on its part avoided a long downturn by investing in its people, which McCulley states today has made it a centre of business. New York, on the other hand, battled petty criminals, while also using softer police tactics and direct outreach programme to engage its citizens.
“Anywhere where a government provides its citizens with potential and opportunities to capitalise on that potential, those citizens will be better prepared to deal with crises and challenges,” discloses the diplomat in his presentation titled: “Leadership, Good Governance and Generative Cities as Pre-requisites for National Development.”
He says, “In Nigeria, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Calabar have been among the cities lauded for good infrastructure improvements like port improvements and free trade initiatives that have allowed business to boom. But what happens to these cities if the oil industry dries up? Will they be like Seattle, which prospered in spite of – or perhaps because of – the decline of its biggest business, or will they be like Detroit, which remains in a downturn after the U.S. auto industry suffered its recent setback? It will be up to local, state and federal governments, along with their citizens, to plan for contingencies like this.”
He identifies some similarities between New York in the 1980s and today’s northern Nigeria, saying, “Whenever and wherever a population feels like its government is not providing an adequate quality-of-life, it becomes complacent to criminals, whether they are vandals or terrorists.
“The underlying cause in both cases was subtly different: New Yorkers in the 1980s and Nigerians in the north today felt betrayed by their governments, who had failed to provide the things citizens needed, like good schools and adequate infrastructure. Criminals and terrorists exploited these sentiments and took advantage of a dearth of government presence to grow their nefarious organisations.”
According to him, this is one reason why the US supports the improvement of schools, health programmes and infrastructure in northern Nigeria as part of a comprehensive approach to the challenges posed by Boko Haram. “It is also a reason that the U.S. objects to the use of heavy-handed tactics by security forces taking on those challenges. Nigeria’s government needs friends in the north, and a more targeted approach to tackling Boko Haram combined with better services for northern citizens can help it attract those friends,” he adds.
The diplomat emphasises that urban revitalisation requires a holistic, long-term approach.
“If a city fixes its transportation links, but is still ridden with criminals, shoppers will not visit. Likewise, if a city fixes a crime problem, but has no easy means for residents to visit the safe downtown area and no businesses to develop there, it remains at risk of falling back into decline.”
Good governance, McCulley states, requires a coordinated campaign to address issues, with a vision for the long-run result that policymakers hope to achieve. He contends that change rarely happens overnight, “which is often actually a good thing: it gives planners time to research and evaluate different options to select the best path to prosperity and security.”
His words: “In today’s Nigeria, people are migrating from rural areas into cities, which is changing the social dynamic. City-dwellers in the U.S. and Nigeria alike tend to want more government services than citizens who live farther from population centres, and city governments will have to address those wants. This migration is also likely to change the political and economic environment of Nigeria’s cities, so leaders must be mindful of this evolution in order to consistently provide the best quality governance to their citizens.
“Finally, change always involves engaged citizens who contribute to the efforts their governments undertake. This is why it is also important for cities to recognize the positive role that Nigeria’s significant informal sector can play in urban transformations. By constructively collaborating with informal workers, cities can not only achieve the goals of their projects, but also provide those workers with an economic ladder out of poverty.
“In the next 50 years, I know that this university will continue to provide a strong education for future government officials. I also hope that those of you who are not and will not become officials remain engaged in the political process, and in those parts of governance that happen between elections too. Lagos is your city, and Nigeria is your country. Make it a strong one.”
Acting Vice-Chancellor, Professor Rahman Ade Bello, states that creating and maintaining a sustainable environment remain a pressing issue. He points out that cities are confronted with challenges such as environmental change, economic crises and more recently, terrorism.
“The calls for international partnerships and multidimensional solutions to these issues permeate the global agenda. Therefore, stakeholders in the built environment, in embracing the dynamism of our times, must be proactive. The decision of the university to hold today’s event is a creative way to initiate this process,” he declares.
Bello describes the topic as a propitious one, “given the challenges we currently face as a nation.” He emphasises that the institution’s location “in the premier city of Nigeria also necessitates the need for intensive discourse on the pertinent issues” related to urban development.
An international body of planning and built environment experts has urged African governments and development agencies to accept the realities of existing urban conditions, and take strides to manage and enable poor urban populations to find their dignity and security of livelihood.
This, according to the group, can be achieved through urban governance strategies that rest upon engagement, respect for all human life, and a long-term incremental view of urban development.
Makoko
The plea formed the fulcrum of the outcome of deliberations held recently in Lagos, Nigeria by the Association of African Planning Schools (AAPS), a network of universities in mostly Anglophone Africa that teach urban planning. It comprises 45 planning schools in 15 countries.
The University of Lagos in Akoka last December hosted the AAPS forum that examined the relationship between informality, infrastructure and spatial planning in the bustling city, in respect of which participants visited Makoko, a notorious slum settlement on the Mainland. The academics observed that the neighbourhood is in dire need of attention, particularly incremental interventions where essential services are provided in partnership with community structures.
Makoko, the planners submitted, is symbolic of the extreme conditions facing the urban poor, and the innovation they employ to survive in the city. They emphasised that it is the task of governments, as well as theirs, to facilitate this innovation.
“This is a testing time for governments in Africa, and it is our responses as officials, representatives and servants of the public interest that will determine the esteem with which we are held by future generations. This great continent demands an effective and creative response from its leaders,” stated Professor Vanessa Watson and Professor Babatunde Agbola, respectively the AAPS chair and vice-chair, in a communiqué.
Watson (who is of the University of Cape Town in South Africa) and Agbola (University of Ibadan) stressed that the African continent is currently undergoing a wide-reaching urban transformation which, according to them, manifests in massive urban population growth, mediated by patterns of circular migration between cities and rural areas.
They remarked that rapid urbanisation in contexts of infrastructure limitations and shrinking formal economies have driven the emergence of an extensive and vibrant informal sector in many African cities. Evidence from all over the global South has shown that informal processes relating to land and property transactions, subdivision and housing, economic activity, and all manner of social relations (including between states and citizens) are proceeding at an increasing rate, the eggheads noted.
“Many African governments have devoted considerable effort and resources to dealing with these complex phenomena, despite severe constraints relating to institutional governance structures and the availability of finance. Important strides have been made to improving the lives of the urban poor.”
Watson and Agbola explained further that, despite these efforts, many governments demonstrate a persistent tendency to view slums and informal settlements, not as the products of social adaptability in the face of formal employment shortages and infrastructural limitations, but as blighted problems to be eradicated through forcible eviction and demolition.
They contended that the clearance of slums is often motivated through the entirely inaccurate view that such places foster an unusual degree of base moral depravity, engendering a profound disrespect for human life and dignity amongst inhabitants.
The planners drew a linkage between the aesthetic condition of built environments and the moral conscience of citizens, citing the case of the recent and devastating state interventions associated with Operation Murambatsvina (literally meaning ‘one who rejects filth’) in Zimbabwe, which they noted demonstrates governments, planners and security institutions’ desire to rid urban areas of informal activities.
“As an international association of African planning academics and educators, we hold the position that slums and informal settlements are the outcome of rational human innovation and ingenuity, albeit guided by desperation and survivalism. These are people making ordinary decisions to protect themselves and provide for their families, not depraved blights on the face of our cities,” the communiqué reads.
The planning teachers believe that, internationally, there is evidence of a paradigm shift in urban policy discourse which, they claim, realises that informality is an undeniable reality of 21st century urbanisation, not reversible or “solvable” through forceful means of relocation.
A number of international planning and development bodies, including UN-Habitat and the World Bank, have highlighted alternative approaches to managing informality, they disclosed, pointing out that these strategies rest upon encouraging community participation and ownership of incremental upgrading programmes.
Watson and Agbola went on: “They see urban improvement as being a protracted process of sustained community engagement. They draw upon and consolidate the innovation, social capital and ingenuity already being shown by local communities. International networks of community-based organisations such as Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) encourage local communities to organise themselves around financial savings schemes, and use self-‐enumeration (self-conducted censuses) to develop social capital and shared developmental goals amongst members.
“They seek to engage in partnerships with government agencies, and encourage local residents to take a proactive stance in urban upgrading. These state-community partnership approaches focus on ensuring that informal settlers have some degree of land tenure security. By guaranteeing communities the right to use the land they occupy for certain periods of time, they are encouraged to invest in their immediate built environment, to take pride in their places of habitation and livelihood. Adopting such approaches is not only advantageous to local communities, but to governments as well.
“They can assist with the meeting of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets, and the fulfilment of international agreements such as the United Nations Convention on Human Rights. They further allow local and national state entities to avoid the severe political, economic and social costs associated with clearance programmes.
“In a world of instant communication, the loss of political capital associated with such interventions can have significant ramifications for international investment and tourism. On the contrary, humane and considered interventions in urban environments may become sources of revenue through tourism, improved international image and stimulated local economic development.”
The African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town hosts the AAPS Secretariat. The body has, since 2008, received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation to promote curricular reform in Africa. The AAPS’ ideological starting point is that, in order for urban planning to be relevant and effective, it must depart from its colonial origins and promote pro-poor and inclusive intervention in cities. The organisation is of the view that planning is a political process that should be about enabling the urban poor in Africa to pursue decent livelihoods in the city.
Significant progress is being made in scaling up malaria control efforts and the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), an alliance of 43 African Heads of State and the African Union working to end malaria-related deaths on the continent, says Africa is better prepared to defeat malaria now than at any other time in history.
During the African Union Summit, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, chair of ALMA, said to achieve universal access to life-saving tools and continue the drive toward eliminating malaria deaths, we need an additional $3.2 billion in funding over the next three years.
Mosquito
“A share of these resources will come from Africa. We can’t ask the world to invest in Africa’s health if we won’t make the same investment ourselves, but we will need the world’s help,” said President Sirleaf.
A recent independent study commissioned by ALMA, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria, and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership found that every dollar invested in malaria control in Africa generates on average $40 in GDP on the continent. And scaling up to universal coverage of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malaria by the end of 2015 will prevent 640 million cases and avert 3 million malaria-related deaths. ALMA members stressed the need to strengthen their financial management with support from the African Development Bank and the World Bank to enhance accountability and transparency.
Increasingly African countries are enhancing efficiencies in procuring life-saving interventions such as artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), indoor residual spraying (IRS), and long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs). For example, by standardising LLIN net specifications, African countries could save $630 million over five years.
Further evidence now included in the ALMA Scorecard for Accountability and Action is the monitoring of progress toward the Abuja target of 15 percent national public sector financing for health. The new data shows that in difficult global economic times, 14 African countries have responded by increasing their domestic contribution to health by more than two percent. This encouraging sign of enhanced domestic resources reflects a continued commitment to achieving global health targets. However, more still needs to be done, as only Botswana, Rwanda, Togo and Zambia have achieved or exceeded the Abuja target.
ALMA continues to promote the adoption of innovative financing initiatives in African countries, such as the UNITAID airline tax. Over the last 5 years, the airline tax has raised over USD $2 billion of which $1.2 billion has been invested in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. Currently, six African countries are implementing the airline tax and 14 countries are in the pipeline.
Ultimately, continued progress in the malaria fight is not only a matter of financial resources, but it is also about technological innovation. ALMA recently launched an iPad application that increases engagement with Ministers, facilitates communication and enables a rapid response system to emerging crises in countries. To date, 44 African ministers of health have been trained on the ALMA iPad application.
In addition to technology, Africa’s most popular sport is joining the malaria team through a new partnership announced between ALMA, United Against Malaria campaign (UAM) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF). CAF has made malaria a signature social cause of the 2013 Orange African Cup of Nations and together the partnership is poised to reach hundreds of millions of African football fans with malaria prevention and awareness messaging.
“CAF recognises that in order for African football to compete on the global stage, we must have players and communities free of malaria,” said Issa Hayatou, President of CAF. “Through our partnership with ALMA and UAM, as an official social program of the 2013 Orange Africa Cup of Nations, CAF is proud to add the voice of African football leadership to that of our Heads of State in the fight against this devastating disease.”
Succour may just be around the corner for developing nations facing critical energy challenges – especially those in sub-Sahara Africa – if a landmark pronouncement made in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, venue of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), is anything to go by.
In the quest to meet the ever-increasing energy needs of industries in the developed and emerging economies, Africa has consistently carried the burden of massive extraction of raw materials and its impact on the environment, health and livelihoods, according to observers.
Faced with a dearth of funding, the countries have likewise been unable to divert from a fossil fuel economy and embrace a change to clean alternatives.
But the HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPEC” \o “OPEC” OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has said that it is committing $1 billion to alleviate energy poverty globally. OFID Director-General, Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, made the disclosure to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during a meeting of the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Group on Sustainable Energy for All during activities at Rio+20.
The OFID is a multilateral development finance institution established in 1976 by the member countries of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Elaborating in the content of the Ministerial Declaration, Al-Herbish added that the institution stood ready to scale up this commitment if warranted by demand. He added that while OFID has always responded to its partner countries’ priorities and strategies, the institution was of the opinion that universal eradication of energy poverty required sustained international effort and that access to modern energy services is vital to support all aspects of development.
Since 2007, he revealed, OFID has increased the share of energy projects in total operations. In 2011, this share amounted to 25 percent, added Al-Herbish, a Saudi.
The Ministerial Declaration welcomes the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All” and recognises that universal access to modern energy services is an objective that the international community aspires to achieve by 2030.
The Declaration concurs with the universal access to modern energy services component of the Secretary-General’s “Sustainable Energy for All Initiative.” Ministers also recalled the 2007 Solemn Declaration of the Conference of Sovereigns and Heads of States of OPEC Member Countries, the Riyadh Declaration, which emphasised that eradicating poverty should be the first and overriding global priority guiding local, regional and international efforts. Ministers also referred to the “Energy for the Poor Initiative” launched in Jeddah, in June 2008, during a meeting of energy producers and consumers, which called on OFID to consider a programme of $1 billion for alleviating energy poverty.
The Ministers declared that efforts to eradicate energy poverty must be technology-neutral. While renewable solutions are appropriate where economics permit, fossil fuels will continue to be an important contributor to energy supply. Poor countries cannot be deprived of energy for development during the transition to a more diversified energy mix, the Ministers suggested.
They called upon the Rio+20 Summit to adopt universal access to modern energy services by 2030 as a goal for sustainable development. According to their Declaration, strong political will and long-term governmental commitment will be prerequisites to energy poverty eradication. The investment needed to ensure universal access is substantial, and all available types and sources of funding will need to be mobilised.
The OFID objective is to reinforce financial cooperation between OPEC Member Countries and other developing countries, by providing financial support to the latter for their socio-economic development. The resources of OFID are also used to provide grants for food aid, technical assistance, research and similar intellectual activities. One of the institution’s central aims is to advance South-South solidarity. OFID has been headquartered in HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna” \o “Vienna” Vienna, HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria” \o “Austria” Austria since 1976.
Observers have severally expressed concern over the fact that current energy policies in Africa reflected in high tariff have largely unleashed poverty on local communities, especially on rural women who can hardly afford the cost. Also, local communities that are barely visible in the media are said to suffer daily untold hardship in the quest for extraction of resources for energy.
A lack of management culture has been fingered as a major drawback to the realisation of Nigeria’s energy efficiency dreams.
This situation, along with the persisting case of inadequate and far-from-efficient supply, seems to have compounded the woes of the masses as well as the economy.
Besides contributing greatly to useful man-hour loss, energy inefficiency also leads to power wastage, a development attributed to inept technologies and human behaviors.
Participants at a gathering in Abuja on “Energy Efficiency Best Practices in the Residential and Public sector in Nigeria” who shared these sentiments, likewise took a swipe at government, saying that the authorities have paid more attention to energy generation with little emphasis on end-user management.
According to them, there is a huge potential in terms of energy savings in Nigeria, going by international best practices. They submitted that saving energy and reducing wastages by using efficient appliances will increase access to electricity.
“The way we use energy in Nigeria causes a lot of problems to our transmission and distribution facilities. Electrical appliances beyond five years of use have been proven to consume more energy. Awareness creation is highly needed to sensitise Nigerians on energy usage,” they stated, adding that the adoption of energy efficient best practices can lead to huge savings on money in the residential and public sector of the country.
They lamented the situation whereby most Nigerians do not have access to prepaid meters, emphasising that, following global experiences, adopting energy efficient best practices has been proven to be cheaper than building a new power plant.
The two-day gathering was organised courtesy an energy efficiency initiative being supported by the United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility (UNDP-GEF), as well as the Federal Ministry of Environment (FMEnv), Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) and the National Center for Energy Efficiency and Conservation (NCEEC).
However, participants at the forum urged government to, as a matter of urgency, place more emphasis on end-use energy efficiency. They also underscored the need to educate consumers on energy efficiency and savings.
Awareness creation and capacity building on behavioural patterns of energy usage should be intensified especially in the rural areas, they stressed, adding that government should gradually phase out the use of incandescent bulbs via a bottom-up approach, while putting in place incentive mechanisms for the use of energy-saving lamps.
“Government should strengthen the policy that stops the importation of second-hand appliances. The Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) should be strengthened to promote energy efficiency, while public and private institutions should establish Energy Management Unit (EMU) in their various parastatals/ministries so as to carry out energy audit regularly in order to identify energy saving opportunities. Also, employers should be educated on energy management opportunities in their establishments,” reads a communiqué issued at the end of the event.
The document adds: “A policy should be put in place that will encourage the retrofitting of obsolete and in-efficient appliances with efficient appliances, just as the adoption of smart switching off, occupancy sensors in public buildings will help in saving energy. Nigeria should adopt designs and implementation of energy efficient buildings.
“Hospitality industries especially hotels should adopt solar thermal technology in heating water. The use of gas cookers should be promoted instead of electric cookers, to save electricity usage since Nigeria has abundant gas resources. All levels of government should replace the current street lighting to energy saving and efficient lamps.
“There is need to create an enabling environment for energy efficiency through adequate consumer incentive programmes to harness the benefits accruable from energy saving. Government should establish an Energy Saving Trust Fund (ESTF) where all savings from energy bills will be paid for the promotion of energy efficient best practices in the country. Energy efficiency programmes should be promoted and incorporated into the primary, secondary and tertiary curriculum in Nigeria.”
Efforts by Nigeria to benefit from the climate change Adaptation Fund has gotten underway with the isolation of an initial quadruple of projects for further consideration.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, the Adaptation Fund was established to help developing nations to be able to support concrete adaptation projects that can enhance their ability to cope and adapt to changes expected in the area of climate change impacts.
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.
Each country has an opportunity to submit proposals that can fetch up to $10 million per country in funding adaptation programmes and projects. Over the years, Nigeria had lagged behind in devising viable initiatives towards accessing the largesse.
But the spirit of procrastination appeared to have been laid to rest as stakeholders gathered for two days in the Federal Capital City to strategise on how the country can move forward in submitting proposals that can enable it access the fund.
“Within the last two days, we’ve been trying to see how we can zero-in on number of topical issues that can actually be developed to into project proposals or programme proposals which will be submitted to the Adaptation Fund Board,” said a source close to the Climate Change Department, which organised the brainstorming session.
The four projects under consideration entail addressing: Flooding (as a result extreme weather conditions) in Lagos and Sokoto; Gully Erosion in the seemingly ecological wastelands in South East Nigeria; Coastal Erosion in the Niger Delta; and, Coastal Erosion in Ondo, Badagry axis (in Lagos) and Oron.
The Project Committee will meet at a later date to prune the number to two.
The source added: “The Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund is not as complex as other entity like the Global Environment Facility (GEF) proposals. I believe once these topics are made available to the ministry (Federal Ministry of Environment) and the ministry follows in the areas of ensuring that the topics are bankable, there are lots of materials that the consultants can have access to and there are lots of national interest to pursue them, I believe within the next two months we should be able to have at least a concept note that can be approved by the board which will provide little resources to now develop the concept note into full-fledge project. I believe before the year runs out, Nigeria’s name should be able to appear among those considered and approved to have received this fund.”
On the issue of the implementing entity, he stated: “We are not to come out clearly on a particular national entity because many of the national agencies that can do it are doing their best but are still not strong enough totally with respect to the fiduciary type of thing, area of transparency, account management and all the rest. We are hoping that there will be a sort of collaboration, maybe among three of between two national agencies. One may act as the technical arm and the other may act as the financial management arm that can collaborate together. But, obviously, it can’t be a ministry because it would be very difficult for a ministry to be able to provide the type of transparency and accountability they are asking for. In many other countries, it is done by a government agency or a non-governmental organisation (NGO) or a combination of both.”
On composition of the working and technical committees: “It all depends on the government and I am sure Nigerians are ready to work with the ministry even if they say we are continuing from where we are next week as they can provide logistic support that will enable the people that want to support and then again to relate with the development partners to make sure that, in addition to the national efforts been made, international perspectives are also added to what we need to do to get a project on board.”
On the session in general, he expressed satisfaction, saying: “I’m very impressed with the knowledge that a lot of the people that participated brought in. And it became very clear that this type of strategic thinking is very critical rather than a few individuals sitting down trying to put a proposal together that may read very well but will not jive through.
“This approach has shown that, with a number of people bringing in good ideas and discussing them and synergising them in such a way, it becomes very important to be able to know the critical national challenges to address. I think it’s been very fruitful.”
Nigeria and some 16 other middle-income countries are beneficiaries to the $7 billion Climate Investment Fund (CIF), which is being implemented by the World Bank in partnership with some multilateral development banks. The CIF entails the $4.8 billion committed to the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and $2.2 billion to the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF).
Similarly, the African adoption of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects is considered higher than the world average. Delegates at the recently-held Africa Carbon Forum (ACF) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were informed that the continent currently has 85 registered CDM projects, representing just over two percent of the more than 4,000 projects.
Apart from Nigeria, the CTF funding is leading to leveraging investments of $37 billion to support nations like Algeria, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam. The countries plan to radically rebalance their national energy portfolios by investing in renewables at a large scale.
Robert Bisset, Senior Communications Officer, Sustainable Development Network at the World Bank, disclosed in Washington, District of Columbia, USA, that under the SCF, the Pilot Programme for Climate Resilience (PPCR) endorsed strategic investment plans worth around $960 million.
According to him, the Bank is the Trustee of 15 carbon initiatives. According to him, 10 carbon funds and facilities were established between 1999 and 2008, and that these initial instruments are currently capitalised at $2.2 billion.
“In addition, five carbon instruments have been launched that focus on the post-2012 carbon market. A total of 174 active projects are expected to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by an estimated 220 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent,” he said.
Recent data from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Risoe Centre shows that in the last three years there has been a significant increase in the number of CDM projects initiated in Africa compared to other regions of the world, a trend observers predict will likely continue.
Indeed, a recent World Bank publication, “The Little Data Book on Climate Change,” shows that, out of the 50 African nations, only 18 have hosted CDM projects, out of which five were issued Certified Emission Reduction credits (CERs).
The CDM allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries to earn CERs, each equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2). The CERs can be traded and sold, and used by industrialised countries to meet a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.
As at November 2011 when the journal was printed, the five countries were Egypt (nine CDMs; 7,012 CERs), Morocco (six CDMs; 330 CERs), Nigeria (five CDMs; 312 CERs), South Africa (20 CDMs; 1,900 CERs) and Tanzania (one CDM; 56 CERs).
The five registered Nigerian CDM projects are: Recovery of Associated Gas that would otherwise be flared at the Kwale Oil-Gas Processing Plant, owned by AGIP; Pan Ocean Gas Utilisation Project in Ovade-Ogharafe; Asuokpu-Umutu Marginal Field Gas Recovery Facility, owned by Platform Petroleum; the SAVE80 Fuel Efficient Wood Stove that aims to reduce by 80 per cent the amount of wood needed for cooking, thereby slowing the rate of desertification in the northern part of the country; and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Composting Project in Ikorodu, Lagos State, registered December 2010 and owned by EarthCare Nigeria Limited.
The 13 nations with only registered CDMs, according to the World Bank publication, include Cameroun (two), Congo Democratic Republic (two), Ivory Coast (three), Ethiopia (one), Kenya (five), Liberia (one), Madagascar (one), Mali (one), Rwanda (three), Senegal (one), Tunisia (two), Uganda (five) and Zambia (one).
China leads the way globally with 430,696 CERs from 1,604 CDMs.
Developments as at March 2012 however showed the Escravos Oil Field Associated Gas Recovery in Nigeria (that is expected to generate18.6 million CERs by 2020) is the second largest of the 262 newly-approved CDM projects. The largest entrant in March is China’s Qinshui County 120 MW Power Generation Project (27.5 million CERs by 2020).
Similarly, Namibia has submitted its first project for validation, which is a power-from-biogas activity in Windhoek that strives to generate 91,000 CERs by 2020.
Kai-Uwe Schmidt, Team Leader of Carbon Finance Assist at the World Bank, described the ACF as one of the key climate events on the African continent.
His words: “This conference definitely exceeded our expectations, especially in terms of the remarkable increase in the breadth and depth of the interactions among policymakers, experts, and practitioners from the public and private sectors. It has been a great place to see peers exchanging knowledge and collaborating on major issues, including low-carbon development strategies, action plans, climate, and carbon finance.”
John Kilani, Director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Sustainable Development Mechanisms, said the conference showed that Africa is ready to actualise its potential toward a green growth economy.
“My wish is that participants will leave this conference knowing that Africa is now ready to participate actively in the CDM, while also remaining engaged in any discussion or consideration for new market approaches,” he said.
Kurt Lonsway, Manager at the Environment and Climate Change Division of the African Development Bank (ADB), expressed satisfaction with the high number of participants as well as the active interest and engagement they showed. According to him, the increasing economic development on the continent means that “there is no better time than now to promote green and low carbon growth in Africa.”
Henry Derwent, President and CEO of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), said: “Africa Carbon Forum 2012 has shown that Africa has now enthusiastically absorbed the message that carbon reduction can be combined with development and increased income. The world now needs to translate that enthusiasm into economic demand.”
Yannick Glemarec, Executive Coordinator of UNDP-GEF, echoed the importance of the private sector, saying: “It was promising to see the continuous private sector engagement in carbon finance and the high interest in scaled-up programmatic CDM. We are confident that Africa will be able to deliver climate change mitigation at scale.”
About 1,200 registered participants took part in this year’s ACF, which is organised under the auspices of the Nairobi Framework, an initiative launched to help developing countries, particularly those in sub-Saharan Africa, increase their participation in the CDM.
The annual forum is described as the leading knowledge-sharing and carbon trade platform in Africa. The event brought together project developers, service providers, buyers and sellers of carbon credits, and various other private and public sector stakeholders. They sought to tap the potential of carbon finance to promote low carbon development on the continent.
Bisset noted that the World Bank has taken a leadership role in the next generation carbon markets for the post-2012 period by developing new carbon instruments. He emphasised that, in 2008, the Bank established two new carbon facilities designed to broaden, depeen and extend the duration of carbon finance – the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) aiming to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), and the Carbon Partnership Facility (CPF), aiming to scale up the use of carbon to accelerate mitigation activities.
“In 2010, the Bank launched the Partnership for Market Readiness to support market-based national efforts to reduce GHG emissions in developing countries. In December 2011, two new post-2012 carbon initiatives were launched in Durban: the BioCarbon Fund’s third tranche (BioCF T3) and the Carbon Initiative for Development (Ci-Dev). These new carbon initiatives will channel funds to projects which are vital to the world’s poorest.”
African governments have been accused of being complacent about the “covert” activities of the biotechnology industry to undermine food sovereignty on the continent.
According to participants at a workshop held in Abuja, the policy frameworks for biotechnology in most African countries are either non-existent, weak or subject to manipulation by multinational corporations promoting genetically-modified organisms (GMOs), and acting in alliance with some research institutes.
Nnimmo Bassey, Chairman of ERA
Participants at the event organised by the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) in collaboration with the African Biodiversity Network (ABN), African Center for Biosafety, EcoNexus and the Third World Network declared that the much-touted benefits of GMOs, when critically analysed, are found to be myths.
They pointed out that, in 2008, over 400 scientists, 30 governments from developed and developing countries and 30 civil society organisations, concluded work under the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). The report observed that modern biotechnology would have very limited contribution to the feeding of the world in the foreseeable future, they said.
At the workshop titled “Biosafety Regulations and Experience Sharing”, the participants warned that the production of GMOs is not only a threat to biosafety; it also poses a great threat to human and animal health as well as the environment.
“Promoters of GMO and their allies have deliberately ignored the importance and the peculiarities of African culture, environment and agriculture in their aggressive attempts to impose their products on Africa. Rather than African governments getting committed to promotion of agro-ecological agriculture practices, they have become tied to the apron-strings of speculators and neo-colonial powers whose objective is to exploit, subjugate and destroy food production systems on the African continent.”
They added that, contrary to the arguments peddled by modern biotechnology industry, there are few or no tangible successes stories on GMOs and Africa must not be used as ground for experimentation for unverified technologies.
They accused the Nigerian government of not taking into account the concerns of local farmers, critical stakeholders, citizens’ participation and engagement contrary to the provisions of the AU model law and the Cartagena Protocol in the formulation of the draft Biosafety Bill now waiting for the President’s signature.
Participants lamented that African farmers, especially women, lack adequate access to land and other resources necessary for agricultural production, a situation they say is further compounded by massive land grabs by multinationals corporations for agro-fuels production and other capitalist interests.
“There is a dearth of funding and sustainable investment from African governments for research and development in agro-ecological practices of improving agriculture in Africa. There is inadequate information and awareness on food sovereignty issues in the media thus shutting out critical stakeholders, thereby deepening public ignorance and inhibiting contributions to solutions,” noted the participants.
They, therefore, called on African governments to address the hunger question on the continent by prioritisation of agro-ecological agriculture systems over corporate models that promote inequalities.
They likewise underlined the need for a local and continental paradigm-shift towards food sovereignty based on local contextual considerations, promotion of small-scale farmers, pastoralists and fisher-folk which, they stressed, have defined agro-ecological agriculture based on human rights and sustainable natural resource management.
Furthermore, African governments were urged to put in place adequate regulatory frameworks for monitoring compliance.
“African governments should adequately address the gender insensitivity in agriculture with particular emphasis on access to land and other resources. This is because women are widely acknowledged as pillars in African agricultural practice and sustenance.”
Against the backdrop of successes recorded courtesy of its highbrow “Grenadines Home Arepo” in Ogun State, bigwig property developer, the Lagos-based Messrs Propertymart Real Estate Investment Limited, has introduced a similar concept in Abuja. This time around, the firm is building the “Grenadines Home Lokogoma”, in respect of which construction commences.
