03/24/2021
By Abosede Oluwatosin Akande

The College of Fine Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Political Science Global Studies Program, invites you to attend a Doctoral Dissertation Defense by Abosede Oluwatosin Akande on April 12, 2021 entitled “Evidence on Demand: Circumventing Poor-Grid Networks, Capacity, and Effects of Renewable-Energy to Expand Industrial-Manufacturing in Nigeria.”

Candidate-Name: Abosede Oluwatosin Akande
Degree: Doctoral
Defense-Date: Monday, April 12, 2021
Time: 3 to 4 p.m.
Location: Virtual Defense via Zoom
Dissertation Title: Evidence on Demand: Circumventing Poor-Grid Networks, Capacity, and Effects of Renewable-Energy to Expand Industrial-Manufacturing in Nigeria.

Committee Chair (Advisor): Philip Moss, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Committee Members:

  • John Wooding, Ph.D., Professor-Emeritus, Department of Political-Science, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Philip Moss, Ph.D., Professor-Emeritus, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Lowell
  • Robert Forrant, Ph.D., Professor-Emeritus, Department of History, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Abstract: Undisputedly, Nigeria is a national power in the continent of Africa, nonetheless, there has been a crisis of electricity generation since 1999. With 190 million people, only 45% of the population have access to grid electricity. Furthermore, Nigeria generates 5,156MW of electricity annually out of the nation’s projected 30,000MW target and the researcher’s estimation of the country’s actual need of 580,289MW per annum. Subsequently, this research examines if Nigeria can effectively surmount the capital-intensive nature of its grid-electricity systems through renewable energy (RE) in its two largest sectors (food-beverage-water and wood-furniture-manufacturing) in order to reduce electricity expenses, increase productivity output, and profits.

Because the discourse in the literature and theory on green-growth is yet to link RE-generation and energy-investments to SME’s and large manufacturers, this research tests a new paradigm of RE-based economic development in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector and introduces a concept of a ‘net-meter return’ to the sun, as well as efficient bidirectional ‘input-output supply locations’ in the country’s four electricity-system models. Using a qualitative and quantitative mixed-methods approach consisting of in-depth interviews and statistical modeling, findings from the research reveal state-structures managed by public-stakeholders worsen access to finance for RE-operators and inhibit the capacity of RE market-actors to deploy commercial solar-power services and products. Secondly, annual petrol-costs and hours-daily generator-use does not decrease annual gross-revenues and enterprise-competitiveness of manufacturers, which was statistically-significant in both sectors. Finally, a statistically-significant prediction regarding the desire for solar-intervention was not found in both sectors when controlling for petrol as main electricity-source.

Overall, the research surmises achieving the twin-aims of economic-growth and climate-compatible green-development will remain improbable for Nigeria given the MW output-limits to RE-generation, but particularly referencing solar-renewables. For this reason, green-growth theory cannot work when envisioning broad-based industrial-transformation in Nigeria and other developing-countries with similar population-dynamics, manufacturing-output, and economic-contexts. Consequently, new financial-models for network-expansion and increased generation-output must still be devised to power Nigeria’s industrial-ambitions.