The Federal Government through its Ministry of Environment has handed over more than $2 million worth of equipment to refrigeration and air conditioning training centres in the country.

Speaking at the official distribution of training equipment to selected Refrigeration and Air Conditioning training centres in Lagos, Minister of State for Environment, Dr lizak Adekunle, said the initiative is in line with the Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) Phase Out Management Plan (HPMP Stage II) project and support Nigeria to achieve a phase-out of 1,274.05 metric tonnes in the servicing sector by 2026.

He said the tools will enhance the capacity of beneficiary training centres to deliver effective training programme on HCFC-free refrigeration and air-conditioning technologies, and promote the adoption of environmentally-friendly practices and technologies in the refrigeration and air-conditioning sector.

The forum was organised by the Federal Ministry of Environment (Ozone Office of Pollution Control and Environmental Health Department) and the United Nations Development Organisation (UNDP).

The equipment procured and handed over to the training centres include refrigeration handling tools such as service manifolds, electronic gauges, vacuum gauges, and tools for tubing such as general tube cutters, capillary tube cutters, Pinch off pliers, and flaring tools.

Others are safety equipment such as safety glasses, gloves, hydrocarbon (HC) service tools such as Nitrogen flushing equipment, HC Leak detectors, and recycling equipment such as portable recycling machines, and external filter kits.

The minister said the equipment and tools were procured under the HPMP being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Government of Italy. The endpoint of this project, he said, is to eliminate Nigeria’s 2010 baseline consumption of 344.9 tonnes of HCFCs by 2040.

He said the refrigeration and air-conditioning service sector has remained largely unstructured with a large presence of informal, small and medium-scale practitioners with little or no presence of qualified engineers. The technical capacity of technicians, the minister noted, therefore, remained low and inadequate to drive the total HCFCs phase-out plan of the country.

One of the major activities proposed by the ministry and approved for implementation under the HPMP stage 2 in 2018 is the establishment of Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Centres of Excellence by strengthening existing training centres to provide up-to-date best practices in using non-ozone-depleting and low global warming potential refrigerants, as well as improving the energy efficiency of cooling appliances.

“Consequently, in July 2023, 32 technicians were sent to Italy by the Federal Ministry of Environment in collaboration with UNDP. These technicians received training and certification at an Italian company on using hydrocarbon refrigerants and improving energy efficiency in the servicing sector. The graduates will be operating training centres across the country and are expected to train and certify over the next few years not less 10,000 technicians on good refrigeration practices using hydrocarbon refrigerants,” he said.

Salako said the Federal Ministry of Environment is currently updating the curriculum to be used for the training and certification programme. In addition, he said, necessary policies and minimum standards to ensure that only trained and certified technicians are allowed to practice refrigeration and air-conditioning servicing in the country will soon be made public and will be strictly enforced.

He charged the beneficiaries to ensure sustainable deployment of the equipment, adding that the government will carry out robust monitoring of their activities in partnership with a private sector company, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and trade association, the Nigerian Association of Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Practitioners.

“I implore you to utilise the equipment effectively and abide by all the conditions outlined by the ministry. This is an ongoing intervention and soon additional training centres will be recruited into the programme,” he said.

UNDP in Nigeria Resident Representative, Mrs Elsie Attafuah, said the depletion of the ozone layer poses a significant threat to human health and the economy. She said the initiative will empower beneficiaries, and strengthen national capacity in the production of environmentally friendly refrigerators.

National Consultant for the project, Ade Awujoola, said climate issue has become a concern for everyone but the challenge over the years remained the dearth of skilled workforce to mitigate and protect human health. He emphasised that the tools will help the nation in training the needed capacity and reduce the depletion of the ozone layer.