The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) with financial support from the European Union (EU) has successfully concluded a turbine fabrication training programme to improve technical manufacturing and licensing capacities in the Nigerian private sector as part of a knowledge and technology exchange with the Belgian private sector. The beneficiary companies include Nigeria Machine Tools Limited, Nigerian Foundries Limited, Momas-Epail MIC (MEMCOL) Limited and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASINI).
The initiative was jointly financed by the EU-funded project ‘Small Hydro Power Development for Agro-industry Use (SHP-DAIN)’ and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) ‘Scaling up small hydropower (SHP) in Nigeria’ project. Both of these programmes support the expansion of small hydropower capacity, enhanced agricultural productivity and food security and the promotion of local manufacturing with associated job creation in Nigeria.
The European Union highly promotes technology transfer as a way of ensuring project sustainability and building necessary capacity for expending energy access in partner countries like Nigeria. The EU also supports collaboration with European private and public sectors. More importantly, the concrete results from this project assignment will be to locally fabricate turbines and install on-site in Nigeria.
Godfrey Ogbemudia, representing the European Union to the Federal Republic of Nigeria & ECOWAS and Programme Manager on Energy and Circular Economy
The training is very valued, and having licensing to fabricate and manufacture turbines locally is a great advancement to private sector companies Nigeria, while appreciating UNIDO and the EU for the investment into Nigeria private sector.
Cynthia Samuel Abima of Nigerian Foundries Limited
The two-week long training event included activities such as visits to multiple power plants, European turbine fabricators, design and assembly of crossflow turbines and electromagnetic equipment, site evaluations and practical demonstrations of turbine manufacturing procedures, providing participants with hands-on knowledge of the workings of a crossflow small hydropower plants.