The Corporate Affairs Commission is to run its operations partly on solar energy from the year 2005, the Registrar-General of the Commission, Mr. Ahmed Almustapha, has disclosed.
Almustapha, who made this known during the visit to the commission by members of the House of Representatives' Committee on Commerce led by its Chairman, Alhaji Isa Saidu, said the solar energy would compliment electricity supply from the National Electric Power Authority.
He disclosed that the commission had imported solar energy panels and equipment, which were currently being installed at the head office.
"We have embarked on a project for deploying solar power as an effective means of ensuring continuous power supply to our computing and telecommunications equipment at the head office. We want an uninterrupted power supply for the commission's server, which would power our on-line system.
"We are now in the process of tapping solar energy to compliment the services of NEPA. The services of the commission are so essential that each time there is a power failure, it affects the system. Solar panels have been installed at the head office, which would convert solar power into electricity during the day.
"The electricity that would be produced from solar energy would be used to charge 60 maintenance free dry cell batteries, which would in turn supply power to a pure sine waive inverter. The inverter would supply the alternating current to the relevant equipment in the server room," he explained.
He disclosed that the commission had embarked on on-line project to improve its efficiency and enhance the quality of service delivery.
"This involves the use of electronic workflows to replace manual paper-based processes, the provision of an efficient Wide Area Network-based intranet and a rugged Very Small Aperture Terminal-based internet connectivity.
"We are now able to process all incorporation jobs from availability, data entry and scanning of document to generation of certificates by means of the fully integrated web-enabled document management applications," he disclosed.
The House Chairman commended the CAC management on the solar energy project, noting that this would facilitate delivery of quality service by the commission to its customers, including local and domestic investors.
Saidu, who explained that the visit was part of its over-sight function on the Ministry of Commerce and its parastatals, however, commended the commission for adequately managing its resources in spite of its zero-appropriation in the 2004 budget.
"In each of the parastatals under the ministry that we have gone to, they have one problem or the other in spite of the huge appropriations to them in this year budget. But, the CAC is a model to all the other parastatals for efficiently managing its resources," he said.
