The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has pledged to leverage Nigeria’s 86 million people without access to electricity to transform the country into the renewable energy hub of West Africa.
Speaking in Abuja at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the agency and 10 Renewable Energy Service Companies (RESCOs), REA Managing Director Abba Aliyu emphasised that while many view Nigeria’s electricity deficit as a challenge, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sees it as an opportunity for economic growth.
His words: “And that clear mandate is nothing other than making Nigeria to be the renewable hub of West Africa. We have a total of about 86 million Nigerians without access.
“A number of people will see that as a challenge facing the country. But the present government, led by President Tinubu, wants to capitalize on this challenge to turn it into opportunity.
“We want to leverage on this 86 million Nigerians that do not have access to make Nigeria to be the renewable hub of West Africa.”
Throwing light on how to provide electricity for the 86 million people, he said there is the need for financing, implementation vehicles, operational framework and the domestication of the value chain in Nigeria.
He added that there is also the need for talent development in the renewable energy field.
Stressing the financial commitment of the present administration to the development of renewable energy, he revealed that the government has signed the largest public sector funded renewable project in the entire West Africa.
He said, “First, when it comes to financial, it is on record that this government has signed the biggest public sector funded renewable project in the entire West Africa.”
He noted that the 750 million dollar Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project has not only been signed, but the project has already started.
He added that REA has started with the 14 interconnected mini-grids that would not only create reliability for the underserved, but also be the basis upon which the country would scale up its intervention.
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In the bid to scale up the development of renewable energy in the country, he said the agency sought an amendment to the regulation that capped a mini – grid at 1MW.
He said the agency got the approval to develop a mini-grid above 1MW.
Aliyu said, “Most of us here know that the mini-grid regulation has a top of one megawatt, right?
“But because we really want to scale up our intervention, we engaged a regulator, and it is on record we exchanged over eight letters back and forth with the regulator.
“And at the end of the day, they gave us approval to implement a project that is above one megawatt.”
He revealed that REA is targeting to generate 14 interconnected mini-grids for the deployment of an unprecedented interconnected mini-grid of 21.5 MW.
He said to scale up the financial intervention of renewable energy development, in addition to the 750 million dollar DARES project the agency already has, Tinubu has approved a N100 billion funding for rural electrification agencies to implement the National Public Sector Solarization Initiative.
He described it is a federal government initiative to reduce cost of governance.