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The Nigeria Association of Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Practitioners (NARAP) has set aside July 31 every year, code-named NARAP Day, as a day to celebrate practitioners in the refrigeration and air-conditioning space.
Speaking at the inaugural celebration on Thursday, July 31, 2025, in Lagos, Ahmed Ibrahim, NARAP’s National President, said this year’s event which coincides with the World Refrigeration Day would henceforth be a yearly event.
Ibrahim also noted that the event resonates with the theme of this year’s World Refrigeration Day which is “Cool Skills”, especially considering the fact that an election was held within the association last year and the annual event will enable members to keep tabs with latest developments within the association, which will enable it to chart a new cause going forward.
“Most importantly as a key stakeholder in the minimum energy efficiency campaign being embarked upon by the Federal Government, NARAP members have been collaborating in ensuring that compliance with the low energy efficient air conditioners, this we will continue to do for desired results to be achieved,” he submitted.
Alex Abiodun Okelola, Lagos State Coordinator of NARAP, noted that the yearly event would afford leaders of the association the opportunity to address key challenges within the industry because, according to him, all members across the country will have the opportunity to sit under the same roof and deliberate on how to take the association to the next level which will impact positively on the association at large.
Okelola however appealed for robust partnership and collaboration between the government and refrigeration and air conditioning companies to liaise with practitioners to enable seamless activities within the industry.
“As the association is growing, we appeal to the government to improve on the support being rendered to us by way of providing the recovery machine as we are seeing the fading off of R22, R12 and the likes, because we are still having those gases in the market, government needs to come in here by making sure that we don’t experience such in the market any longer.
“I am using this medium to appeal to those unregistered practitioners to come and join the association so that they will be trained on the job and accredited to work as qualified practitioners,” he pleaded.
In his submission, Dr. Leslie Adogame, Executive Director, SRADeV Nigeria, noted that the NARAP event, organised to mark this year’s World Refrigeration Day, is very important because Nigeria is a signatory to the Montreal Protocol.
Adogame stressed: “The protocol, as you know, has to do with ozone depletion substances. Now the refrigerators we have currently today in Nigeria are refrigerators containing a lot of what you call high global warming potential chemicals (HCFCs) and because of the global movement to phase out these chemicals, technicians like NARAP are a major skill stakeholder, so we are initiating a project where in Nigeria, where we are supporting the National Zone Office of the Federal Ministry of Environment to build capacity of NARAP members to the possibility of professionalising members of the association to be able to fix new refrigerators that are coming into the country, that’s the Montreal Protocol under the Kigali Implementation Plan recommends.
“Very soon, the Federal Minister of Environment through the National Ozone Office will be launching the Kigali Implementation Plan, and we are supporting that process,” stressed the SRADeV Nigeria’s Executive Director.
By Ajibola Adedoye
