By Ayodele Johnson

While most of the conversations, through conferences and workshops, about adapting renewable energy mix to curb carbon emissions across Nigeria are happening in the cities, the country’s vast rural parts offer the most space to start to impact lives for the better.

In picturing what has characterised rural communities and has separated them from the urban centres is to visualise inequitable infrastructure access, be it bridges for moving goods and farm products, or electricity to power households where most production activities go on. The low accessibility to electricity in particular would therefore bring about lower productivity and that is why the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has been up and doing.

“In response to subsidy removal,” says the Director Promotion and Outreach (PIO) Malam Mutari Ibrahim, in a statement: “REA is implementing interventions to develop electric mobility, mini-grids, distribute home systems, deploy streetlights, potentially supporting up to 250,000 households in the coming year.”

But 250,000 households means there are still more grounds to cover. However, the overall view of the ongoing mission won’t dampen hopes.

Initially, by the year 2040, REA hoped to have reached a full electrification rate, and that’s going to happen after 513,000 households have been served consistently in a year starting from 2020. With the latest results, things seem to be going according to plan.

“From 2020 to date, REA has provided power to over 7.5 million people including 1.5 million households, delivering 130 mini-grid projects, including 1.3 million standalone home systems,” outreach officer Malam Muntari reveals.

He adds: “The agency has equally deployed over 1,650km of solar street lights, improving power, security, and economic growth in rural areas. Over $2bn in investments in the renewable energy sector have been recorded in the past 10 years due to the in-agency efforts and new partnerships.

A fresh agreement is now in the offing with a memorandum signed on Sunday 17 October between the agency and the Africa Mini-Grid Developers Association (AMDA). It targets the enabling power of the off-grid energy stream, which features renewables like solar.

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The beneficiaries of this will be mostly hard-to-reach communities whose daily lives suffer substantial blips because of inadequate availability of electricity. In rural areas, farming usually takes centre stage as the main preoccupation. Where there is no electricity power, the provision of water for irrigation and crop planning becomes a bigger challenge.

In the mind of REA’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Engr. Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, the vision for his agency’s linking up with AMDA is clear. The memorandum, although not exclusive, is what needs to keep happening to deepen the reach.

“We are excited to partner with AMDA to further improve the development of mini-grids in Nigeria while deepening the impact of REA solutions for socio-economic growth. This MOU will further aid the accelerated deployment of mini-grids and provide clean, sustainable, and affordable electricity to more Nigerians.”

@TheREANigeria is excited to partner with @AfricaMDA to accelerate mini-grid development and deployment in Nigeria, to bridge the energy access gap and provide clean, reliable electricity to millions in rural and underserved areas.#RuralElectrification#SustainableDevelopment pic.twitter.com/85f5qs5znK

— Abba Aliyu (@abbaaliyu_) October 18, 2023

Equally as important as making electricity available to communities is the provision of jobs that come along.

Up to 500,000 new ones have been created, according to the Rural Electrification Agency. This is the result of another engagement with development partners such as the World Bank, which has supported with the required finance to help to stir things up.

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.