The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) is seeking investors that would collaborate with the agency in local production and domestication of lithium batteries among other renewable energy solutions.
Bashir Gwandu, the executive vice chairman/CEO of NASENI said the agency was ready to partner with international companies that are willing to set up their industries in Nigeria and start local production of renewable energy solutions, electric vehicles parts and other capital goods that could create jobs and reduce Nigeria dependence on foreign goods that exert pressure on our foreign exchange for the country.
Gwandu, who disclosed this while receiving a business delegation from LEMI Technology Shenzhen, China at NASENI headquarters said that “NASENI is already doing a lot in the area of Solar Panel Production.”
He said very soon NASENI will attract solar cell manufacturing to improve synergy with its existing work on solar panel assembly. He said the Agency has held meetings with other companies from around the world intending to seek partnerships on local production of lithium-based end-products in Nigeria as against the normal practice of foreign companies exporting the raw materials outside the country for processing.
According to him, taking some of the visions of NASENI forward, which is the domestication of technologies, capital goods production and commercialisation in Nigeria, NASENI would help bridge the technological gaps between Nigeria and other countries, help stop the importation of these technologies and encourage local production.
He also said NASENI will be working with the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) to encourage the development and production of electric vehicles and even conversion of existing vehicles to electric vehicles as against producing from scratch. In that same regard, NASENI is also in discussion with various stakeholders on the promotion of the installation of electric vehicle charging stations on major roads across the country.
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“So, we are inviting friends of Nigeria to come here and establish. We are encouraging those who can come and produce locally. We will give them support and ensure that the investment environment is encouraging,” he said.
The NASENI EVC hoped that this call creates an opportunity for partners who want to produce in Nigeria to do so. The Federal Government, he disclosed, “would welcome any company who gets to us first”, adding that on the production of Lithium batteries, the Agency was ready to go into partnership with companies that are willing to establish their factories in Nigeria.
Xie Feng the chief executive officer of LEMI Technology expressed his company’s willingness to partner with NASENI through MoU on renewable energy with particular reference to products like solar and television panels, inverters and battery production.
He said Nigeria and China have a brotherhood that spans many years, adding that Nigeria with its teeming population, is critical for investment opportunities. Mr Feng added that LEMI Technology has been operating in the Nigerian market since 2018 and had provided job opportunities to Nigerians and has sold renewable energy products to over 200,000 Nigerian households.
He encouraged them to take advantage of the discussion and harness the advantage because those who come to invest will be assisted by NASENI through the promotion of government policy to limit the export of all types of lithium except what Nigeria cannot process to an end-product.
