President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday said Nigeria had assumed the position of pacesetter in renewable energy capacity development across the continent.

Tinubu made the declaration while commissioning Africa’s first renewable energy college, the Barefoot Renewable Energy College, alongside the Green Hydrogen Research and Demonstration Pilot Plant at the Confluence University of Science and Technology, Osara, Kogi State.

Represented at the event by Vice President Kashim Shettima, the President said the college addresses one of Nigeria’s most persistent structural challenges by converting the country’s abundant natural resources in sunlight, wind, biomass and water into megawatts, and megawatts into jobs.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications in the Office of the Vice President, Stanley Nkwocha, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday titled, ‘President Tinubu Commissions Africa’s First Renewable Energy College in Kogi.’

“This is the first institution of its kind on the African continent, modelled on the celebrated vocational colleges of India that turned unlettered grandmothers into solar engineers.

“If that method could light the villages of Rajasthan, it can light the settlements of Kogi, Ondo and Cross River. Nigeria assumes, from today, the position of pacesetter in renewable energy capacity development across Africa,” the President said.

Shettima, conveying the President’s remarks, said Tinubu had consistently maintained that a government is measured by the industries it builds and the households those industries sustain.

The President reflected on the speed of execution, contrasting it with Nigeria’s history of abandoned public projects. He said, “As a nation, we have become used to foundation stones that outlast the men who laid them.

“Two years ago, we stood on this ground for the groundbreaking of this institution, with red earth underfoot and the ambition of a few determined Nigerians for company. Today, we stand before a world-class edifice, completed to international standards.”

Tinubu described the college as a deliberate response to Africa’s real bottleneck in the energy transition, saying the challenge was not a shortage of ambition but a shortage of trained personnel. “Our continent has never suffered a deficit of intention. We have suffered the scarcity of hands trained to execute them,” he said.

He noted that the college would produce technicians, installers, operators and maintenance professionals with practical competence in renewable energy technologies.

According to him, graduates would receive internationally recognised certificates of proficiency that would qualify them for employment or entrepreneurship anywhere in the world.

“A certificate issued in Osara must one day command respect in Nairobi and in Frankfurt,” he added, while calling on development partners, the private sector, international organisations and research institutions to collaborate with the college. He assured them that Nigeria was ready to host and lead such partnerships.

The President commended the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Kingsley Udeh, and the Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Dr Mustapha Abdullahi, for taking the project from conception to completion. He also thanked Kogi State Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo and the state government for providing an enabling environment.

Governor Ododo said the inauguration demonstrated that Nigeria was on the path to sustainable development through investment in human capital and would strengthen the country’s energy sector while attracting investment and creating opportunities for communities.

He commended the Federal Government for addressing Nigeria’s power challenges through strategic investment in the knowledge economy.

The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Udeh, described the project as a major investment in human capital development and job creation, saying it reflected the Federal Government’s commitment to building a knowledge-driven economy.

He said Nigeria’s ambition of becoming a $1tn economy depended on developing a skilled workforce in strategic sectors such as renewable energy and urged the pioneer trainees to uphold high technical and ethical standards as ambassadors of the institution.

The Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Abdullahi, described the college as the first of its kind in Nigeria, equipped with smart classrooms, battery energy laboratories, a mini-grid simulation centre, energy efficiency laboratories and other modern training facilities.

He said the institution would produce highly skilled professionals in renewable energy research and development in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda.

The Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Dr Ahmed Anaje, said the project would equip young people with valuable technical skills for national development and thanked the Federal Government for locating the institution in Kogi State.