An estimated 705,000 households and 90,000 micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will get off-grid electricity in a US$395million funded programme by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA). Its Managing Director, Mr Salihijo Ahmad says that the Nigeria Electricity Programme was currently funded by a $350million World Bank and $200million African Development Bank (AfDB) facilities.

REA says it has signed 267 agreements to provide electricity to unserved and underserved Nigerians under the Nigeria Electrification Projects. Mr Ahmad says that about $64.8million of the commitments had been disbursed to private sector partners for the execution of the projects. Also to be connected under the programme are 100 isolation and treatment centres and 400 primary healthcare centres in unserved and underserved areas of the country.

Ahmad said that over the years, REA had moved from just being an implementer of Federal Government projects in the sector to a hub and an enabler of business in the sector. He said the agreements signed with private developers led to over a million connections across the country. “The REA has the mandate of taking power to unserved and underserved Nigerians. How it goes about doing this depends on where the funding comes from. According to the rural electrification strategy plan, we have targets to reach Nigerians everywhere in the country and the numbers at the moment are being quoted to be as high as 80 million people,” he said.

The REA helmsman said that the agency had to dig deep to find ways to bridge the huge electricity gap in the country, because depending on the government for funding would mean leaving millions of Nigerians without electricity. To achieve this, a lot of funding is required and what we are used to doing is that every year we wait and get government’s money from the budget, go to the site and then implement the projects. However, if you are to do this for the next 100 years, you will not be able to meet those targets hence it became important for the agency to ensure that its mandate does not end at implementation,” he said.

Ahmad said that with the Rural Electrification Fund, which is private sector driven, REA became a hub and an enabler to ensure that funding comes from different areas to enable it deliver on its mandate. “Now government money is used as an enabler to attract private investment. For instance, for the rural electrification fund, you have a capital subsidy where if a project cost ₦100million, that subsidy will come in, may be at 50-60 percent and the private developer will come up with the rest of the money. Deliver the service to the community and go into an agreement with the community for the rest of the money,” he explained.

Anita Otubu, Head of Programme Management Unit, NEP explained that the programme has five components. They include the solar hybrid mini-grid worth $213million, standalone solar home systems of about $75millon, energising education programme $250million.

Others were the energy efficient equipment and productive use of appliances worth $20million and technical assistance at $37millon. She said that so far, 67 mini-grids had been completed with 995,396 solar home systems deployed, adding that with this, about 1,151 jobs were created.

Nigeria is reported to have one of the lowest access to electricity globally. About half of the population lack access to power, stated the Energy Progress Report 2022. People who have access to electricity more often than not have to make provision for alternative power, with spending on providing private power estimated at ₦12trillion to produce 40,000MW.

Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.