By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has stated that about seven million households have been connected to electricity through the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) in the last four years.
The Managing Director (MD) of REA, Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, while speaking at a stakeholders’ dialogue organized by Arnergy Solar in Abuja, said that the project, which is a N418 billion facility has provided solutions to homes through mini grids that have spurred business activities in rural areas.
Ahmad expressed that the success of the programme has led to the launch of another $750 million project, which is equivalent to N577 billion, that would cut across providing concessionary finance for mini-grid developers and solar home system providers, adding that they will be working alongside a few distribution companies in order to deploy electricity to homes in the country.
He stated that while the Agency is making incentives through various platforms to make financing available for mini-grid developers, the removal of fuel subsidy by the federal government is creating more demand for alternative energy.
In his own words, “these days, once you ask everyone if they are getting 20 hours of electricity supply per day from the distribution, the answer is no. It opens up the conversation, and the mandate is to go out and provide electricity to homes and businesses that do not have electricity on the other hand, we have people who have access but there are issues and this has further been exacerbated by the fuel subsidy removal.
“So, people that could power their homes with alternatives like diesel generators are asking questions. This would further increase the 8 million people or more that do not have access to power.”
The CEO of Arnergy Solar, Femi Adeyemo, on his part, said that the inability of businesses and homeowners to power their facilities has presented the opportunity for those in the solar power industry to collaborate and discuss how they can expand the next phase of growth for the industry.