By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government is working towards capitalising the use of methanol as source of energy, adding that it will help improve the economy and provide jobs amidst the current COVID 19 pandemic.
This was stated by the Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Ogbonnaya Onu, during the final meeting of the cabinet committee to source funding for the implementation of the national policy on methanol for fuel in Abuja.
“With the full implementation of this product methanol, such will help improve our economy and provide jobs in line with the objectives of Mr President to defeat poverty that has been on for years, create jobs for our citizens and most of all look inward.
“The COVID 19 pandemic has exposed weaknesses amongst many nations and has shown the world that science, technology and innovation (STI) remains key of developing nations. We recently, have seen nations running short of PPEs, face mask and other protective measures against the virus and everyone working judiciously hard to see how the vaccine can be created to fight this physical enemy in our health system, society, economy and way of life.
“Nigeria has tremendous potentials to truly become a great nation and COVID 19 in turn is a wake up call for us to start as a nation believing in ourselves and how to produce what we need basically as a people and this is where methanol comes in. If you recall, our nation has depended for long on commodities,” Mr Onu stressed.
He pointed out the advantage of the use of the methanol stating that the chemical can be sourced for a thousand of products which are commonly used in schools, laboratories, etc.
“It can be used adding 15 percent to the fuel making it economical, it is environmental friendly, cheaper to afford, use to produce power for electricity or generators in our homes, offices, schools, industries, etc.
“It can also be used for cooking which is cleaner and cheaper than the kerosene and also to save forest by not using the woods to cook and darken pots, to eliminate gas flaring, and another important fact is that it isn’t injurious to our health and environment,” he said.
The minister said that a lot has been lost to importation making Nigerians stay out of job in the area of STI.
“That has come to an end because we will no longer export our natural resources in their native state and then they refine it and bring it back to us in a higher amount to buy. And so this meeting will help us achieve the result the Federal Executive Council (FEC) desires as a nation,” the Minister further said.
Dipo Olowookere