President Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday inaugurated Africa’s first renewable energy college, the Barefoot Renewable Energy College, Osara, (BARECKS), and the Green Hydrogen Research and Demonstration Pilot Plant in Kogi.
Tinubu, represented by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, described the citadel of learning located at the Confluence University of Science and Technology, as a world-class edifice of international standards.
According to him, government is measured by the industries it plants and by the households those industries feed.
Tinubu noted that the difficulty confronting Nigeria had been “converting its endowment into megawatts, and megawatts into jobs.
The Nigerian leader, however, assured that the difficulty would now be addressed by the college
He noted that the inauguration of the institution had answered the question about whose hands should build and maintain Africa’s future.
“This is the first institution of its kind on the African continent, modelled on the celebrated vocational colleges of India that turned unlettered grandmothers into solar engineers.
“If that method can light the villages of Rajasthan, it can light the settlements of Kogi, Ondo and Cross River. Nigeria assumes from today, the position of pacesetter in renewable energy capacity development across Africa.
“Two years ago, we stood on this ground for the groundbreaking of this institution, with red earth underfoot and the ambition of a few determined Nigerians for company
“Today, we stand before a world-class edifice, completed to international standards,” he said.
The president disclosed that the college was built as a vocational and technical institution to close the widest gap in Africa’s energy transition, which according to him, is the shortage of competent technical manpower.
“Our continent has never suffered a deficit of intention. We have suffered the scarcity of hands trained to execute them,” he said.
