MD of REA, Salihijo assumes office two days after appointment

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad has assumed office.

According to a post by the REA, the new boss was at the office on Thursday and met with the management and staff of the agency.

It said the MD will continue the drive and mandate of the federal government in connecting rural areas to electricity.

The new MD, who is in his mid-thirties, is said to have vast experience on renewable energy. He worked at the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC), and was a technical assistant to former Minister of Environment.

Salihijo, from Adamawa State and son of a consultant to Buhari during his days at Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF), is the newest young person at the management level of REA.

President Muhammadu Buhari had appointed Dr. Sanusi Ohiare from Kogi in 2017 as the Executive Director, Rural Electrification Fund in the agency, supervising major solar power projects and funds from the World Bank.

Salihijo’s appointment by Buhari was announced on Tuesday.

It came one week after the Minister of Power, Engr. Saleh Mamman, suspended the erstwhile MD of REA, Damilola Ogunbiyi over infractions. She had spent four and half years driving the agency before vacating office.

Damilola, who had been appointed as the Representative of the United Nations Secretary General on Sustainable Energy for All, equally assumed duty at the UN on Thursday.