The report of the three-day United States-Africa Leaders Summit, which is exploring collaboration on economic engagement, democracy and climate change, kicked off, yesterday, in Washington DC, with 45 of the 49 invited African heads of government dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Guardian reports that amid emerging new scramble for Africa, especially from China and Russia, the much anticipated three-day United States-Africa Leaders Summit, which is exploring collaboration on economic engagement, democracy and climate change, kicked off, yesterday, in Washington DC, with 45 of the 49 invited African heads of government.
Of the invited, only South Africa, Zimbabwe, South Sudan and The Gambia were represented by their Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
At press time, last night, President Muhammadu Buhari was expected to make his presentation at the Summit on supporting conservation, climate adaptation and energy transition, with hope of exerting commitments on deeper ties between Nigeria and the U.S.
Earlier, at the African and Diaspora Young Leaders Forum, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said the United States is committed to ensuring young people can continue to bring their talents and hard work to the benefit of people across the continent and in the United States.
“We’ve got a number of programmes that are doing just that – programmes like the Young African Leaders Initiative – and through our economic development programmes, like the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs programme. Now, since its inception in 2019, that programme has provided more than 5,400 women throughout Africa with the training and the networks that they need to start and scale small businesses.
“Over the next few days, we will be announcing additional investments to make it easier for students to participate in exchange programmes between our countries, to increase trade opportunities for members of the African diaspora, and support African entrepreneurs and small businesses. Each of these investments is guided by one overarching goal: to continue building our partnership, so that we can better address the shared challenges we face. And ultimately, we can build a safer, more secure, more prosperous future for all of us,” he said.
This is coming days after the European Union (EU) made an announcement of $170 billion to rival China’s investment and commitments in Africa. The $170 billion financing package for projects and development on the continent came after a two-day summit with the African Union in Brussels.
The funding will be spread across seven years and account for half of the bloc’s total capital allocated to its Global Gateway plans, pitched as an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
The newspaper says that Nigeria and Rwanda on Tuesday signed Artemis Accords, making them the first African signatories to the agreement.
The Artemis Accords are a set of principles to guide the next phase in space exploration, reinforcing and providing for important operational implementation of key obligations in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
This was one of the fallouts of the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington DC, which featured the first-ever U.S.-Africa Space Forum.
The Forum reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to collaborating with African partners on the peaceful use and exploration of outer space to meet shared priorities for here on Earth.
The Forum highlighted the U.S.-Africa space partnership and cooperation to address 21st-century challenges and opportunities, including responding to the climate, biodiversity, and global food crises; promoting responsible behaviour in outer space; and reinforcing U.S.-African scientific and commercial space cooperation.
The participants in the Forum committed to deepening the U.S.-Africa space partnership across all sectors.
The Accords affirm the importance of implementing best practices and norms of responsible behaviour as well as compliance with the Registration Convention and the Rescue and Return Agreement.
The two countries signed the agreement at a Space forum at the ongoing U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington D.C.
Prof Isa Ali Pantami, Minister of Communications and ICT alongside Halilu Shaba, Director-General of Nigeria’s National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) signed the agreement on behalf of Nigeria, while Paula Ingabire, Minister of the Ministry of Information Communication Technology and Innovation and Francis Ngabo, CEO of Rwanda Space Agency, signed the Accords on behalf of Rwanda.
They were joined on the U.S. side by Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Bill Nelson, and Executive Secretary of the National Space Council, Chirag Parikh.
With their signatures, 23 nations have signed the Artemis Accords.
In furtherance of Nigeria’s goal of providing all of its citizens broadband access by 2025, Nigeria announced that SpaceX’s high-speed, low latency broadband service, Starlink, is now available in the country, making Nigeria the first country in Africa where Starlink is available.
The Rwanda Space Agency and ATLAS Space Operations have partnered to bring a teleport and large satellite antenna to the global space community.
The Punch reports that President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), Tuesday, in Washington, United States, restated the determination of the Nigerian government towards achieving the vision of 30 gigawatts of energy by the year 2030.
According to a statement by the Special Assistant to Buhari, Garba Shehu, the President said this during the discussion panel on Just Energy Transition at the ongoing US-Africa Leaders Summit in the American city.
He used the opportunity to outline the comprehensive Energy Transition Plan unfolded by his administration in response to the issues associated with the climate change.
“As part of the National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy, we set the vision 30:30:30 which aims at achieving 30GW of electricity by 2030 with renewable energy contributing 30% of the energy mix. Last year, Nigeria became the first African country to develop a detailed Energy Transition Plan to tackle both energy poverty and climate change, and deliver the Sustainable Development Goal 7 by 2030 and net-zero by 2060.
“Our Federal Executive Council approved the plan earlier this year and adopted it as a national policy. As part of the plan, we intend to completely eliminate the use of petrol/diesel generators by 2060 and therefore need to deploy renewables, particularly solar, at an unprecedented scale. For instance, the Energy Transition Plan requires that 5.3 GW of solar be deployed annually until 2060 to achieve our targets,” Buhari said.
The Nigerian President stressed that the Nigerian government had embarked on several reforms, one of the best in Africa, on mini-grid regulations as well as the integration of renewable energy into the national grid. He disclosed some of the reforms which had positively impacted the energy sector in Nigeria.
“Our aggressive power sector reforms have resulted in cost-reflective tariffs in the power sector for the first time since privatisation. Under the Nigeria Electrification Project, over four million people have been impacted through solar mini-grids and solar stand-alone systems. With respect to hydro, the Zungeru hydropower project is nearing completion and will add 700MW in capacity to the grid,” the president added.
While also stressing the resources that the administration had committed towards the realisation of the vision, the Nigerian leader however called for “considerable financial and technical support” to achieve the goals.
“For instance, our analysis shows that delivering the Energy Transition Plan requires $1.9 trillion spending up to 2060, including $410 billion above business-as-usual spending. This additional financing requirement translates to a $10 billion investment needed per annum. Between 2000 and 2020, just $3 billion per year was invested in renewable energy in the whole of Africa.
The newspaper says that Nigeria’s import from Russia has crashed significantly, hitting its lowest this year, as the war in Ukraine persists.
The foreign trade report of the National Bureau of Statistics for the third quarter of 2022 released last week showed that only N1.71tn worth of goods was imported from Russia in the quarter.
This was a decline of 92.17 per cent from the N21.84bn imports recorded in the second quarter.
Nigeria’s two major imports from Russia over the years have been wheat and fish. This year, Nigeria has imported various types of fish from Russia.
Nigeria is yet to import durum wheat from the country unlike previous years.
In Q1 2022, Nigeria imported N6.27bn herrings and N2.77bn blue whiting from Russia, while by Q2 2022 the country imported N13.39bn blue whitings, N7.21bn herrings, and N1.25bn malt.
By Q3 2022, Nigeria imported N1.19bn jack and horse mackerel and N517.90m sulphur.
GIK/APA