The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has held the first match-making fair as it seeks more investors to join the N140 billion Solar Power Naija (SPN) scheme.
Speaking at the fair in Abuja yesterday, the Managing Director of REA, Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, said the SPN team and REA, have engaged financiers and developers at several times.
He said, “These engagements and discussions have yielded significant progress. We, therefore, thought it prudent as a next step to set up this Investor Matchmaking event to allow investors and selected developers to network.”
The SPN launched in 2020 was to roll out 5 million new solar connections in off-grid communities, expected to add N7bn increase in tax revenues per annum and $10 million in annual import substitution while impacting 25 million individuals with the 5m connections while creating 250,000 new jobs in the energy sector.
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The Director of Investments and Power Sector Development in the Federal Ministry of Power, Mrs E.O. Babalola, said the country will require an investment of $3.5bn annually in power generation to achieve electricity goals by 2030, urging investors to key into the scheme.
Speaking, the Head of SPN, Barbara Izilein, said the first investor match-making event is expected to help participants build swift partnerships towards attaining the objective of realising the 5m connections.
“We hope with this approach, we will be able to build quick partnerships that would lead to new connections and further count towards our target of electrifying a minimum of 5m households, serving a minimum of 25m Nigerians,” she noted.
The acting Deputy Missions Director, USAID (Nigeria), Stephen Menard, said the US government through Power Africa has supported Nigeria on 3.6m on-grid and off-grid connections and supported the development of over 1,000 megawatts while proving training about 4,000 persons just as Nigeria still has 85m people without access to electricity.
Menard said the Nigerian off-grid market is worth N9.2bn as he called for more investors.
