The National Directorate of Employment (NDE), has called on state governments to patronise youths that have been trained as solar energy experts.

Speaking in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital at the settlement of 50 Solar Energy experts trained by the Directorate, the Director General of the NDE, Mallam Mohammed Abubakar, said lack of market will be a disincentive to would-be trainees.

His words: "I would like to appeal to governments at all levels to patronize these crop of professionals who have been certified competent to undertake maintenance of existing installation, deploy and install new solar system to power street lights and in offices. Government patronage will encourage other unemployed persons to join program me. But if those who have been trained are not patronized, it will be difficult convincing other youths to join the training."

Abubakar, who spoke through the Director, department of Small Scale Enterprise of the NDE, added stressed that as renewable energy technology applications in the developing countries are attracting increased interest and financial support from the donor community, it is recommended that government develop financial instruments that specifically target renewable energy technologies and stimulate market to attract investments.

Underlying why Nigeria should tap into renewable energy for its energy needs, Abubakar highlighted that with the population of about 160 million and approximately 3.2 per cent growing rate, Nigeria belongs to the group of countries that has the lowest electricity consumption per capita.

He argued further that Nigeria is blessed with abundant variety of energy sources such as fossil energy that include crude oil, natural gas, coal and renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, biomass, biogas.

Wit the prediction that Nigeria oil and gas will be exhausted in about 50 years, the NDE boss declared that the time to explore other sources for energy need has come.

He added: "It is this urgent need to search for alternatives that informed the decision of the management to approve the training in renewable energy such as solar. Not just because of the inherent advantages it has over other sources of energy, but because of the employment potential. We are encouraged that this source of energy especially solar energy is capable of generating employment in geometrical proportion. The Directorate has produced 950 technicians in 19 states of the federation. In Kwara state today, we are graduating and providing starter pack to 50 hitherto unemployed persons, who have been trained in designing, harvesting, installation and maintenance of solar system."

The NDE Chief also tasked the newly trained experts to explore the rural areas of the country for patronage, saying, "it is a known fact that over 70 per cent of the Nigerian population are living in the rural areas, a large percentage of which have no access to the national grid-supplied electricity. The high cost of grid extension to such areas and the widespread of rural communities, all these combined to make rural electrification by means of renewable energy attractive."