The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has disclosed that the annual investment potentials in Nigeria’s mini-grid electricity market is now worth up to $9.2 billion but many investors are yet to cash in on the opportunities presented.
Damilola Ogunbiyi, Managing Director of REA said in a recent presentation: “Overview of the Off-Grid Opportunities and Challenges in Nigeria“, at a recently concluded mini-grid conference in Abuja, that the country’s federal authorities had created an enabling environment for mini-grid operators with the provision of regulation to support the market’s growth.
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Ogunbiyi said REA had made provisions for rural electrification fund, which she asked investors and developers to tap from to develop mini-grid projects. She also explained that a $350 million support from World Bank would be dedicated to the development of mini-grid electricity in Nigeria, and it would fund electricity projects to electrify 200,000 household and 50,000 entrepreneurs.
At the recently held BusinessDay CEO Forum, experts said the electricity challenges Nigeria is currently facing can be addressed by a solar panel revolution and mini-grid investments.
During a panel session, Wiebe Boer, Managing Director of All On stated Nigeria’s power sector was the worst in the world and solutions needed to be proffered as soon as possible as it has constituted a national embarrassment to the country.
He also noted that Nigeria has a 175,000 MW power gap and in a few months and years, solar home systems, mini-grids will be the trend in Nigeria.
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“ No sector in Nigeria can really be disrupted unless we fix power and the disruption coming to the power sector will be the biggest we have ever seen. Off-grid power systems will even put some Discos out of business.
“Power grids and solar panel makers are the ones who will be the next revolutions, buy-in on that,” Boer said.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has said that Nigeria on December 18 attained another milestone when power generation and transmission peaked at 5,222.3 megawatts (MW).
TCN said in a statement from Ndidi Mbah, its general manager, Public Affairs, that this was achieved after two electricity generation milestones of 5,155.9MW and 5,074.70MW were reached on December 8, 2017, and February 2, 2016, respectively.
But this is hardly sufficient to meet the need of Nigerians as South Africa with about 50 million people generates over 40,000MW of power.
ISAAC ANYAOGU
