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Challenges Of NIN Registration

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4 years ago

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National Identity Number (NIN) registration has been in existence for over a decade now but in recent time its process has become a disturbing issue to a lot of Nigerians.On daily basis, people are faced with a lot of challenges in the process of getting enrolled at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) offices across the country.
Due to difficulty encountered by many, Nigerians have been demanding a better organisation of the procedure for enrollment, especially from last year when the Federal Government directed that, for any individual to have access to a lot of things, they must present their NIN.
Since this initiative began and with the challenges many are facing, a lot of questions have been asked concerning what Federal Government really wants to achieve even with the possession of all other identification documents available.
There are several databases gathered over the years about Nigerians.  The Government should have synergised with institutions that have people’s data already instead of subjecting them to hardship.Early this year, some unsuspecting enrollees were allegedly attacked by hoodlums at NIMC office on Aba Road in Port Harcourt. Some persons, according to reports, were said to have lost their personal effects to the hoodlums who shot sporadically on that fateful day.
Most people above 18 years of age possess driver’s licence. Their data are with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC). During the time of obtaining Bank Verification Number (BVN), it was also hectic as people spent several hours at the banks to obtain such, especially when government directed that every account holder must have BVN. The BVN is enough since it involves thump printing by the person and after the capture, the bearer’s picture appears on the printed paper.
There was a time when everyone was asked to register their Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card or phone numbers otherwise they risk disconnection from the Telecom operators. A lot of people encountered problems. Telecoms offices were crowded because of the exercise. The process involved data gathering about the user.
I’m thinking that Federal Government should have used the data gathered through those processes for whatever reasons they may be needed for. In each of these processes, enough information is got about every Nigerian upto the village where the person comes from.
During voter registration exercises, personal data collected about every eligible voter is with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
So,the Federal Government should use information gathered through international passports, BVN, driver’s licence, voter’s card and SIM number. Information from these will definitely help government fight crime since that is what the government wants to achieve, including monitoring of financial transactions in the banks.
The stress involved in queuing for many hours at the NIMC offices cannot be imagined. One can be there from 7:00am to 6:00pm. Sometimes the staff are not enough to capture people. They also complain of lack of materials. The management said any member of staff who involves in bribery should be reported. But it has continued till now even as it is supposed to be free.
I know of someone who just walked into a chief’s palace in one of the South-South states and was conveniently registered and obtained a green labelled slip without spending any kobo that same day.
In this period of COVID-19 pandemic, people gather in their numbers without observing the protocols. Even the staff need social distancing.
Now a Federal High Court in Lagos State has barred the Federal Government from blocking the SIM cards not linked with NIN. The Ministry of Communication and Digital Economy had earlier asked the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) to block all SIM cards not linked by April 9th, 2021.
The court ordered that the deadline be extended by two months from the day of the judgement. It declared that with the rising cases of COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria, the deadline given to over 200 million Nigerians to register and link their NIN with SIM cards would lead to a rush and cause problems.
This has, therefore, led to a lot of reactions from many quarters as the importance attached to NIN registration, despite other data registration and capture by relevant authorities through other means, cannot be imagined. For me, the extension will help reduce the difficulty encountered during registration. Those who have not should use this period of extension to get themselves registered. At least, two months is a whole lot for any serious-minded person considering its importance. The extension should be seen as a way of reducing clustering.
As we can see in Nigeria today, NIN is useful virtually in almost all the things we do. The relevant authorities must have looked at the need critically before such policy was introduced. Although the NIN registration started before the outbreak of the pandemic, but the government should not place a timeline. It should be left open so that people can register at their pace.
The process can be stress-free if government decentralises the centres.  More centres should be created with enough personnel even if it involves ad hoc staff. Institutions like the banks, traditional rulers’ palaces, health centres and less busy outfits should be equipped for use as it will help reduce crowd at the major offices like the one on Aba Road in Port Harcourt.
One of the problems some people had was that the policy was introduced during President Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure. As time went on, slips that were issued then were declared invalid by the same NIMC. So, when the issue of registration came up again, it was looked at from that negative perspective. What came to people’s mind was that it will also become invalid in future.
I think this is where the relevant agencies have to come in, to create more awareness on the need to acquire NIN.
The Federal Government felt that NIN serves as identification instrument for every Nigerian so that wherever anybody goes, if he needs assistance, it will be easy to track him using the number.

 

By: Eunice Choko-Kayode

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Renewable Energy Faces Looming Workforce Crisis

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3 weeks ago

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August 18, 2025

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Despite a discouraging political climate and unprecedented uncertainty in the United States clean energy sector, low costs of wind and solar energy continue to drive growth of the domestic clean energy sector.
However, while market forces continue to support the expansion of renewable energy capacity, the sector faces critical challenges extending beyond the antagonism of the Trump administration.
The continued growth of solar and wind power risks being hampered by several mitigating factors, including (but not limited to) intensifying competition over increasingly scarce suitable land plots, stressed and volatile global supply chains, lengthy and unpredictable development processes, Complex and overlapping permitting processes, and a critical talent gap.
The renewable energy labor shortage has been years in the making, but is no less closer to resolution. The issue spans both white collar and blue collar positions, and threatens to kneecap progress in the booming sector.
Between the years of 2011 and 2030, it is expected that global levels of installed wind and solar capacity will quadruple. Analysis from McKinsey & Company concludes that “this huge surge in new wind and solar installations will be almost impossible to staff with qualified development and construction employees as well as operations and maintenance workers.
“It’s unclear where these employees will come from in the future,” the McKinsey report goes on to say.
He continued that “There are too few people with specialized and relevant expertise and experience, and too many of them are departing for other companies or other industries.”
The solar and wind industries are suffering from a lack of awareness of career paths and opportunities, despite their well-established presence in domestic markets.
Emergent clean energies face an even steeper uphill battle. Geothermal energy, for example, is poised for explosive growth as one of vanishingly few carbon-free energy solutions with broad bipartisan support, but faces a severe talent gap and punishingly low levels of awareness in potential talent pools.
But while the outlook is discouraging, industry insiders argue that it’s too soon to sound the alarms. In fact, a recent report from Utility Drive contends that “solutions to the energy talent gap are hiding in plain sight.”
The article breaks down those solutions into four concrete approaches: building partnerships with educators, formulating Registered Apprenticeship pathways, updating credential requirements to reflect real-world needs, and rethinking stale recruitment strategies.
Targeting strategic alliances with educational institutions is a crucial strategy for creating a skilled workforce, particularly in emerging sectors like geothermal energy.
Businesses can, for example, partner with and sponsor programs at community colleges, creating a pipeline for the next generation of skilled workers. Apprenticeships serve a similar purpose, encouraging hands-on learning outside of the classroom. Such apprenticeships can apply to white collar positions as well as blue collar roles.
“If we can figure out a way to educate the younger generation that you can actually have a career that you can be proud of and help solve a problem the world is facing, but also work in the extractive industry, I think that could go a long way,” said Jeanine Vany, executive vice president of corporate affairs for Canadian geothermal firm Eavor, speaking about the geothermal energy talent gap.
These approaches won’t solve the talent gap overnight – especially as political developments may discourage would-be jobseekers from placing their bets on a career in the renewables sector. But they will go a long way toward mitigating the issue.
“The clean energy transition depends on a workforce that can sustain it,” reports Utility Drive. “To meet the hiring challenges, employers will benefit from looking beyond the next position to fill and working toward a strategic, industry-wide vision for attracting talent.”
By: Haley Zaremba
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Is It End For Lithium’s Reign As Battery King?

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1 month ago

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August 1, 2025

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Lithium-ion batteries power the world around us. Their prevalence in our daily life is growing steadily, to the extent that lithium-ion batteries now power a whopping 70 percent of all rechargeable devices.
From electric vehicles to smartphones to utility-scale energy storage, lithium-ion batteries are increasingly forming the building blocks of innumerable sectors.
But despite its dominance in battery technologies, there are some serious issues with lithium supply chains that make it a less-than-ideal model upon which to base our world.
Not only is extracting lithium often extremely environmentally damaging, it’s deeply intertwined with geopolitical pressure points. China controls a huge portion of global lithium supply chains, rendering markets highly vulnerable to shocks and the political will of Beijing.
China’s control is particularly strong in the case of electric vehicle batteries, thanks to a decade-long strategy to outcompete the globe.
“For over a decade, China has meticulously orchestrated a strategic ascent in the global electric vehicle (EV) batteries market, culminating in a dominance that now presents a formidable challenge to Western manufacturers,” reports EE Times.
The effect functions as “almost a moat” around Chinese battery production, buffering the sector against international competition.
The multiple downsides and risks associated with lithium and lithium-ion battery sourcing is pushing EV companies to research alternative battery models to power the electric cars of the future.
There are a litany of lithium alternatives in research and development phases, including – but not limited to – lead, nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal hydride, sodium nickel chloride, lithium metal polymer, sodium-ion, lithium-sulfur, and solid state batteries.
Solid state batteries seem to be the biggest industry darling. Solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte as a barrier and conductor between the cathode and anode.
These batteries don’t necessarily do away with lithium, but they can eliminate the need for graphite – another critical mineral under heavy Chinese control. Plus, solid state batteries are purported to be safer, have higher energy density, and recharge faster than lithium-ion batteries.
While solid-state batteries are still in development, they’re already being tested in some applications by car companies. Mercedes and BMW claim that they are already road-testing vehicles powered by solid-state batteries, but it will likely be years before we see them in any commercial context.
Subaru is on the verge of testing solid-state batteries within its vehicles, but is already employing a smaller form of the technology to power robots within its facilities.
However, while solid-state batteries are being hailed as a sort of holy grail for battery tech, some think that the promise – and progress – of solid-state batteries is overblown.
“I think there’s a lot of noise in solid state around commercial readiness that’s maybe an exaggeration of reality”, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said during an interview on this week’s Plugged-In Podcast.
Sodium ion batteries are also a promising contender to overtake lithium-ion batteries in the EV sector. Sodium is 1,000 times more abundant than lithium.
“It’s widely available around the world, meaning it’s cheaper to source, and less water-intensive to extract”, stated James Quinn, the CEO of U.K.-based Faradion. “It takes 682 times more water to extract one tonne of lithium versus one tonne of sodium.That is a significant amount.”
Bloomberg projections indicate that sodium-ion could displace 272,000 tons of lithium demand as soon as 2035.
But even this does not signal the death of lithium. Lithium is simply too useful in battery-making. It’s energy-dense and performs well in cold weather, making it “indispensable for high-performance applications” according to EV World.
“The future isn’t lithium or sodium—it’s both, deployed strategically across sectors…the result is a diversified, resilient battery economy.”
By: Haley Zaremba
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Why Oil Prices Could See Significant Upside Shift

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1 month ago

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July 28, 2025

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The 9th OPEC International Seminar was held in Vienna recently, wherein participants discussed energy security, investment, climate change, and energy poverty, with a particular emphasis on balancing these competing priorities.
According to commodity analysts at Standard Chartered, the summit, titled “Charting Pathways Together: The Future of Global Energy”, featured significantly greater engagement from international oil companies and consuming country governments, with discussions converging on a more inclusive shared agenda rather than non-intersecting approaches seen in previous years.
However, StanChart reported there was a clear mismatch between what energy producers vs. market analysts think about spare production capacity.
Unlike Wall Street analysts, who frequently talk about spare capacity of 5-6 million barrels per day (mb/d), speakers from several sectors of the industry noted that spare capacity is both limited and very geographically concentrated.
StanChart believes this erroneous assumption about spare capacity has been a big drag on oil prices, and the implications for the whole forward curve of oil prices could be potentially profound once traders realize that roughly two-thirds of the capacity they thought was available on demand does not actually exist.
This makes the analysts bullish about the general shape of their forecast 2026 price trajectory (Figure 32), i.e., a set of significant upward shifts as opposed to the flat trajectory seen in the market curve and in analyst consensus.
In other words, oil prices could have as much as $15/barrel upside from current levels.
StanChart is not the only oil bull here. Goldman Sachs recently hiked its oil price forecast for H2 2025, saying the market is increasingly shifting its focus from recession fears to potential supply disruptions, low spare capacity, lower oil inventories, especially among OECD countries and production constraints by Russia.
GS has increased its Brent forecast by $5/bbl to $66/bbl, and by $6 for WTI crude to $63/bbl, slightly lower than current levels of $68.34/bbl and 66.24/bbl for Brent and WTI crude, respectively.
However, the Wall Street bank has maintained its 2026 price forecast at $56/bbl for Brent and $52 for WTI, due to “an offset between a boost from higher long-dated prices and a hit from a wider 1.7M bbl/day surplus.’’ Previously, GS had forecast a 1.5M bbl/day surplus for the coming year.
Further, Goldman sees a stronger oil price rebound beyond 2026 due to reduced spare capacity.
EU natural gas inventories have climbed at faster-than-average clip in recent times. According to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data, Europe’s gas inventories stood at 73.10 billion cubic metres (bcm) on 13 July, good for a 2.31 bcm w/w increase.
Still, the injection rate is not enough to completely fill the continent’s gas stores, with the current clip on track to take inventories to about 97.9 bcm, or 84.3% of storage capacity, at the end of the injection season.
Europe’s gas demand remains fairly lacklustre despite extremely high temperatures across much of the continent in recent weeks.
According to estimates by StanChart, EU gas demand for the first 14 days of July averaged 583 million cubic meters/day, nearly 3% lower from a year ago but a 10% improvement from the June lows.
However, StanChart is bullish on natural gas prices, saying the market is likely underestimating the likelihood of more Russian gas being taken off the markets.
Back in April, U.S. senators Lindsey Graham (Republican) and Richard Blumenthal (Democrat), introduced “Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025”, with the legislation enjoying broad bipartisan support (85 co-sponsors in the Senate out of 100 senators).
In a joint statement on 14 July, the two senators noted that President Trump’s decision to implement 100% secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil and gas if a peace agreement is not reached within 50 days but pledged that they will continue to work on “bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation that would implement up to 500 percent tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil and gas”.
StanChart has predicted that the Trump administration is unlikely to take actions that risk driving oil prices higher. However, Russian gas remains in the crosshairs, with U.S. LNG likely to see a surge in demand if Russian gas exports are curtailed.
StanChart estimates that the EU’s net imports of Russian pipeline gas averaged 79.8 million cubic metres per day (mcm/d) in the first 14 days of July, with all non-transit flows into the EU coming into Bulgaria through the Turkstream pipeline, with Hungary and Slovakia also receiving Turkstream gas.
There was also a flow of about 65 mcm/d of Russian LNG in the first half of July, with Russia providing 18.6% of the EU’s net imports. StanChart has predicted that we could see a strong rally in natural gas prices if Washington slaps Moscow with fresh gas sanctions.
By: Alex Kimani
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