Yemi Olakitan
The federal government has contributed 52 megawatts (MW) of solar electricity to rural communities over the course of nearly three years.
Grants from the World Bank and the African Development Bank has helped the federal government to supply of 52 megawatts (MW) of solar electricity across rural areas for a total of N241.8 billion over the course of nearly three years (AfDB).
The Rural Electrification Agency’s examination of scorecards for the Nigerian Electrification Programme (NEP), which is now being executed, has shown the most recent achievement (REA). The World Bank contributed $350 million, while the AfDB contributed $200 million, to carry out the initiative. Although solar power developers submitted 569 proposals, the NEP managers chose to sign grant agreements with 267 of them and seven more developers for the projects energising education power contracts at seven institutions and a teaching hospital. According to the data, the NEP has so far resulted in the creation of 1,151 employment and a reduction of 249,193 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
In Africa, there are about 600 million people without access to electricity and nearly 900 million without access to clean cooking energy, according to a 2020 World Bank analysis on the continent’s energy imbalance. Nigeria, the most populous nation on the continent, is severely hit by this population and in late 2020 surpassed Congo DR as the nation with the largest percentage of people without access to power.
Despite the dire situation, the government has started a number of programmes to increase access to power. For instance, the Federal Ministry of Power is leading the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative, which aims to provide 30,000 MW of electricity by 2030, with 30% of the energy coming from renewable sources. Over 200 million people currently lack access to electricity, and more than half of those who do have energy are underserved. The current capacity of the national electricity grid is around 5,000 MW.
Concerned about this, the federal government introduced the Energy Transition Plan (ETP) in August 2022 in response to calls to abandon fossil fuels and stop global change. However, in order to achieve both a carbon-neutral energy system by 2060 and global access to energy by 2060, the plan, which was unveiled by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at a virtually global ceremony, will require Nigeria to spend about N4.222 trillion above business annually for the next 38 years.
How the government will increase this finance requirement during a move away from oil dependence, rising inflation, and other macroeconomic challenges was central to the launch.
The implementation of the agency’s Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), according to the managing director of the REA, Salihijo Ahmad Salihijo, was a decision made to expand energy availability for Nigerians whose residences are remote from the national electrical grid.
According to him, 1,022 connections with at least 52 MW of renewable electricity produced in the off-grid sector across the 36 states and the FCT have provided electricity for 5 million Nigerians.
The NEP consists of five parts, including a solar hybrid small grid project for $213 million, standalone Solar Home Systems worth $75 million, and the Energising Education Programme (EEP) for 15 institutions and two teaching hospitals, which will cost $250 million.
The other two are $20 million for energy-efficient equipment, which would finance devices like pop-corn makers that can create income, and $37 million for capacity building and technical assistance.
