NIALS, CCLA collaborate on energy law

Both institutes also used the conference, which held in Lagos last Thursday, to showcase and review a book, titled, ‘Ending Africa’s Energy Deficit and the Law: Achieving sustainable energy for all’. The book, a compilation of writings on energy laws, was a collaborative research project of NIALS and CCLA funded by the TY Danjuma Fund for Law and Policy Development in Africa. The Director General, NIALS, Prof. Deji Adekunle (SAN), in his welcome address, noted that energy and infrastructural deficits were holding back potential in Africa. He said, “This collaboration between NIALS and CCLA is an important catalyst for growth in both countries. If these challenges are surmounted, we will be looking at growth in the neighbourhood of $250m a decade in the sector. “It will unleash potential. It will also enable young researchers to enhance their skills, and most importantly, it is a handshake across Africa, South and the West.” The Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and former Dean of Law, Prof. Hugh Corder, in his response, said policy and law needed to be flexible rather than rigid, to enable growth in Africa’s energy sector. The Attorney General of Edo State, Prof. Yinka Omorogbe, who reviewed the book, argued that sub-Saharan Africa needed workable laws and policy to propel research in energy. Danjuma thanked the organisers of the conference. He said his vision to endow the fund at the University of Cape Town and NIALS was his contribution to the universality of energy and why it should be available even to the poor in Africa’s rural areas.]]>