Frustrated by the level of energy poverty amongst her citizens, Nigeria has turned to the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to back her in growing her renewable energy market.

Kemi Adeosun, the country’s finance minister said the country needed the financial institutions’ support to scale up access to energy through renewable energy amongst her people.

She made Nigeria’s position on renewable energy known at the recent G24 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting in Washington D.C., United States.

Adeosun, explained the country’s scaling up of renewable energy in her energy mix was a “win-win area” to deliver development results and contribute to the global climate change goals.

“We have a major energy infrastructure gap to meet the needs of industrialization. Providing access to energy to all parts of Nigeria, both urban and rural, is a priority. If we succeed, we estimate that this could unleash the development potentials of two-third of our population of 180 million,” said Adeosun.

She also stated that financially, renewable energy was an attractive option for reaching rural populations in the country, and that business models used by other countries could serve as templates for Nigeria.

Nigeria, which is also rich in coal deposits has been denied the opportunity to exploit her coal potentials for power generation by the World Bank which insists on funding development and deployment of clean coal technologies for power generation only in countries with no other alternative to coal.

The Bank in 2013 reached a decision not to back coal power generation. Its board agreed to a new energy strategy that will limit financing of coal-fired power plants to “rare circumstances,” and amended its lending policies for new coal-fired power projects.

It in its “Energy Sector Directions Paper,” which is updated every 10 years, also backed increased support for hydro electric power projects.