By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Power with the financial support of the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) within the framework of the Nigeran Energy Support Programme (NESP), on Tuesday officially launched the upgraded Nigeria SE4ALL platform version 3.0
NESP is a technical assistance programme, co-funded by the EU and the BMZ and implemented by
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in collaboration with the FMP.
The first version of the platform officially launched on the 10th of November 2020 has received significant traffic and usage. To further improve the features and overall user experience to facilitate electrification planning and decision- making, NESP has consulted stakeholders and industry experts to get feedback on the features.
The responses from the exercise were analysed and led to the upgrade of the platform with extended data sets and customised web apps for three specific market segments including: Mini Grids, Power Sector, and Solar Home Systems.
Speaking in Abuja at the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new web platform, the Minister of Power, Abubakar ALIYU noted that “access to digital, ground truth data is key to increase the electrification rate in Nigeria.
“That is why the Ministry under the umbrella of the nationwide Nigeria Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative developed this platform, which will serve as the go-to platform for data-driven electrification planning to achieve Nigeria’s Vision 30:30:30”, he said.
In her goodwill message, Ms. Inga STEFANOWICZ, Head of Green and Digital Economy at the European
Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS at the Delegation stated their delight about the website.
“The European Union is happy to have supported the government to develop the new Nigeria SE4ALL web platform.
The collected data and the new tools will be used to serve as pre-feasibility for private sector investment, allow development of policies and frameworks as well as monitoring policy targets,” she added.
Also speaking at the launch, Chargé d’affaires of the German Embassy to Nigeria, Mr. Martin HUTH, highlighted the importance of the platform for the energy sector.
“These interactive platform with intuitive web apps will greatly assist the Nigerian Government in improving the regulatory framework for the set targets of electrifying Nigerians and will provide the private sector with necessary information for the business plans for investments”, he stated.
The Acting Director Renewable Energy and Rural Power Access Department FMP, Engr. Abubakar ALI-DAPSHIMA stated that “the platform launched today has made available primary and empirical data available for key investors in the mini-grid, renewable energy, energy efficiency sub-sectors of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI)”.
The launch event presented lessons learned and insights from various stakeholders including private sector companies, industry associations, FMP, the World Bank Group, and other major donor organisations on the new platform and introduced the new features.
Speaking on the updates, the Head of Programme NESP, Mr. Duke Benjamin explained that “the Nigeria SE4ALL project team has carried out further special projects on field data collection including energy supply assessment, off-grid settlement surveys, and mobile mapping of grid network, in collaboration with national partners.”
Highpoint of the launch was an exhibition which demonstrated the collected data and data collection methods including the demonstration of the mobile mapping device Trimble MX7, a vehicle-mounted imaging system enabling fast and productive capture of road, infrastructure and city environmental data.
It captures 360-degree, geo-referenced images at highway speeds to vastly reduce project operating cost whilst improving public safety.
Since the implementation, over 4,000 settlements and 3.2 million buildings have been remotely mapped, with over 60,000 km electricity grid tracked, which covers 22 states in Nigeria. The data is enriched further through site visits and in-depth community mapping.
