L
LequteMan
Guest
Nigeria's Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has condemned the western world for blocking Nigeria from embarking on a project to generate electricity using coal as fuel.
She said multilateral funding agencies and Western nations are blocking the project on the excuse that the project is not ‘green’, due to its likely contribution to carbon emission.
"In Nigeria, we have coal and there is power inadequacy. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what it will take to get coal-fired power. Yet, we are being blocked. I think there is some hypocrisy in that.
"We have an entire Western industrialisation that was built on coal-fired energy and that is the competitive advantage that has been used to develop Britain, where I grew up.
"Now, Africa wants to do it, and they are saying it’s not green, we can’t do it and that we should go and do solar and wind, which are the most expensive power projects in the world.
“Yes, we are going to have the narrative around infrastructure; we must invest in infrastructure, but we must also make sure the playing field is level. The West, after polluting the atmosphere for 100 years, and when Africa wants to explore its resources, they say no.
She spoke at the ongoing annual meetings of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, United States of America on Wednesday.
She said multilateral funding agencies and Western nations are blocking the project on the excuse that the project is not ‘green’, due to its likely contribution to carbon emission.
"In Nigeria, we have coal and there is power inadequacy. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what it will take to get coal-fired power. Yet, we are being blocked. I think there is some hypocrisy in that.
"We have an entire Western industrialisation that was built on coal-fired energy and that is the competitive advantage that has been used to develop Britain, where I grew up.
"Now, Africa wants to do it, and they are saying it’s not green, we can’t do it and that we should go and do solar and wind, which are the most expensive power projects in the world.
“Yes, we are going to have the narrative around infrastructure; we must invest in infrastructure, but we must also make sure the playing field is level. The West, after polluting the atmosphere for 100 years, and when Africa wants to explore its resources, they say no.
She spoke at the ongoing annual meetings of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund in Washington DC, United States of America on Wednesday.
