The Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria (REA) has said over 20,000 rural communities were without electricity for many years while others remained underserved by energy distribution companies.
The Managing Director of REA, Abubakar Aliyu, represented by the organisation’s Executive Director, Rural Electrification Fund, Dorolis Uboh, disclosed this during the commissioning of a 550kWp interconnected mini-grid in Qua’an Pan Local Government Area of Plateau State on Monday, February 17.
He noted that the government was working to energise 3,700 communities – 100 per state – with 370 megawatts of clean energy.
“The first phase, which is going to be 25 communities per state, will end up being 925 communities across the board in the entire federation, and we’ll be infusing over 92 megawatts of clean energy into our energy space to serve the communities, mostly the rural communities,” he said.
The REA boss said that it had identified 10,000 of these communities for electrification, using clean and alternative energy as part of its efforts to provide them with electricity.
He added that the project commissioned was part of the Interconnected Mini-Grid Accelerated Scheme (IMAS), which aimed to reach 125,000 beneficiaries in Nigeria – across the six geopolitical regions in collaboration with its development partners, including German Cooperation, European Union (EU), and GIZ.
“ 3,500 households would benefit from the project in Bakin Ciyawa and Kwande communities and the government has decided to scale up projects to be able to mitigate the problem of no energy” he said.
(ICIR)
