7m households powered in 4 years – REA

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has stated that 7m households have been connected to electricity through the Nigeria in Electrification Project (NEP) in four years.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ dialogue organised by Arnergy Solar in Abuja, the Managing Director of REA, Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, said the project which is a $550m facility has provided solutions to homes through mini grids that have spurred business activities in rural areas.

Ahmad said the success of the programme has led to the launch of another $750m project that would cut across providing concessionary finance for mini grid developers, solar home system providers “and we will be working alongside a few distribution companies 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.

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“These days, once you ask everyone if they are getting 20 hours of electricity supply per day from the distribution per day, 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 but 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.”

He added that this would further increase the 8million people or more that do not have access to power.”

The CEO of Arnergy Solar, Femi Adeyemo, said 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.