The federal government is now pioneering a voluntary billion dollars’ worth Carbon Market on the continent, a new and innovative Climate Change solution which will create, over the period of energy transition, millions of new jobs in Nigeria alone, according to estimates of the international experts.
This is part of efforts of the federal government to attain the global net-zero emissions target, and vice president Yemi Osinbajo, is a member of the recently formed international Steering Committee for the Africa Carbon
Markets Initiative (ACMI), with the objective of facilitating the emergence and growth of the market in Africa
Besides Prof. Osinbajo, other members of the Committee of the ACMI, which would be announced early in November at the COP27 meeting in Egypt are former president of Colombia, Ivan Duque Marquez; President of the African Development Bank, Akinwumi Adesina, among others, including officials of the United Nations, USAID, Gates Foundation and other international private sector players.
According to a statement by the spokesman of the vice president, Laolu Akande,ACMI’s estimates suggest that Nigeria alone could produce up to 30 million carbon credits per year by 2030, which at $20/credit would be worth over half a billion dollars annually.
According to the estimates by the ACMI, “at this level of production the industry could potentially support over 3 million Nigerian jobs. And Nigeria has only a portion of Africa’s total potential—the impact for the continent as a whole could be far greater.”
The jobs would span the period of the energy transition, starting from the time the market is able to kickoff, till 2060..