Nigeria seeks cooperation with Korea to address energy challenges
By Innocent Obasi
Nigeria is willing to explore partnership opportunities with South Korea in areas that will help to address the country’s energy issues, according to Goddy Jedy-Agba, minister of state for power.
The minister, who received a delegation led by Lyeo Woon-Ki, president of Korea-Africa Foundation (KAF), in his office in Abuja, said the Muhammadu Buhari administration was desirous of learning from Korea’s experience and looking for areas of cooperation to address the country’s energy challenges.
He said the Buhari administration is making significant investments in renewable energy because Nigeria is committed to the UN plan to transform the world’s energy sector from fossil-based to zero carbon by 2060.
“We are happy to receive you to Nigeria. Nigeria is a great country, and we are open to partnerships and cooperations that will help us improve in different sectors,” the minister said.
“Korea and Nigeria have good working relationship in different sectors of our economy. In the power sector, we’ve a number of Korea organizations we’re working with to address our power challenges. We’re hoping that this visit will open up more opportunities for us to strengthen our ties,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Woon-Ki said that the goal of his visit was to familiarise with the ministry and have an insight of the power sector in order to look into potential partnership opportunities.
“I am pleased to be in Nigeria to share what we do in the Korea/Africa Foundation. Since its establishment, we’ve been working with Africa diplomats to organize seminars, workshops and conferences to discuss issues affecting Africa. We are particularly interested in working with your country to address her energy crisis,” Woon-Ki said.
“Energy is key to everything. All sectors depend on energy to thrive. The major problems of some African countries is energy. So, we want to see how we can work more closely to tackle the problems because every process to addressing energy challenges is important,” he said.
Woon-ki was accompanied on the visit by Kim Young-Chae, South Korean ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Won-nyung, director of the KAF, and Son Eunkyung, second secretary of the embassy.