How the REA is implementing FG’s 5m solar connections project

Ahmad Salihijo, the managing director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has said the agency’s strategy of powering rural areas under the ESP is to power critical infrastructure such as hospitals and schools.

In an interview with NTA monitored by our reporter, Salihijo said under the policy, they were able to provide that sort of solution for hospitals, one in Gwagwalada, Abuja, University of Abuja (UNIAbuja) teaching hospital, then another one in Lagos and two in Ogun state.

“So I think that set us off in terms of providing the necessary solutions that we needed during the unfortunate start of the pandemic, and as Honorable Minister mentioned, when the economic sustainability plan was launched, one of the first tasks that we had within the REA was also to identify key hospitals.

“So we identified about 200 primary health care centres within the country and also identified about 100 at Unity schools that have smaller clinics within them and we provided them with an array of Power Solutions between 5 to 15 kilowatts of mini grids, including our solar home systems for those projects which have already been completed.

But to add to it as part of the economic sustainability plan, the President also graciously approved 140 billion with the Central Bank where those funds were not to be spent, as those funds were meant to stimulate private sector participation. Typically, we’ve began to understand that, as we go on and implementing projects, we cannot solely rely on the government budget.

Read also: Solar adoption in Nigeria is a socioeconomic game changer

“So what we have done, given the electricity gap that we have had, is to continue to create an enabling environment for private sector to bring in its own investment. So this was the form that this particular intervention took in mirroring what we already had within the REA with the Rural Electrification Fund and the Nigerian electrification project.

Salihijo said the NDPHC partnered with the private company, and they got a guarantee of N7 billion to provide 100,000 solar home systems.

The REA has also partnered with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who has guaranteed another N22 billion to provide 215 connections, which is going through Board approval.
“Just recently, we partnered with the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority, who also guarantees N10 billion to provide about 200,000 connections.

“So these are all interventions that have been put in place to encourage private sector participation to come in, have their own investment on ground, and to have favourable loan facilities between five to 9 percent interest rates, so that we can work together with them, create jobs, and also achieve all the milestones that we are meant to achieve within the economic sustainability plan, especially around providing of grid power, and also providing the jobs,” he said.

The REA MD also said the World Bank has now committed to and has started providing funding for power for 100 isolation centers, even though those centers were already part of a bigger hospital or a bigger facility.

“So I think overall, we can say we’re getting up to almost a million with these ones that we have in the pipeline, he said.