What is the cost of abandoned offgrid power projects in rural Nigeria?

Data compiled by Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA) shows that the country has over 1600 abandoned power projects in rural areas. To complete these projects, Nigeria needs over $205million.

The bigger concern is why are contractors abandoning these projects and why are they not being held accountable for the past five years? Also what is the impact of these for millions of Nigerians living in rural areas?

According to REA, the projects were not completed because they were not adequately funded, or are poorly planned. Worse still, even if they had been completed many would still not provide electricity to beneficiary communities because they had no reliable power supply sources.

This has left millions of Nigerians in the rural area in darkness. Nigeria’s national grid reaches less than 60 percent of over 180m people and these rural electrification projects were meant to assuage power supply to these areas. But since they are poorly executed, many communities are left in darkness and this is fuelling rural-urban migration.

Legislators have been using the REA for awarding rural electrification projects under the guise of constituency projects. Projects awarded in this window were often influenced to compensate politicians and their associates, says Offgrid Nigeria.

However, in the Rural Electrification Strategy Implementation Plan (RESIP) of the REA obtained by the group, about 1600 of such projects have been left uncompleted with the government indicating its anxiety over the practice and amount of money needed to complete those that are economically viable.

The RESIP said about $205 million would be required by the REA to conclude the abandoned projects, adding that a smart approach to their completion would be adopted.

“The FGN is concerned over the several on-going rural electrification project spread across the country some of which have been abandoned by contractors for more than 5 years. These projects numbering about 1,600 as at 2012, could be found in all the states of the federation, and it was estimated that close to N40 billion ($205 million) is required to complete the projects in 2012,” said the RESIP.

It further stated: “A critical assessment of these projects indicates that most of them were abandoned due to poor funding and lack of proper planning before they were awarded. Almost all of them are grid extension rural electrification projects, and many of them even after completion may not be put to any meaningful use, as they would have no reliable source of power supply.”

In dealing with the problems associated with completing these legacy rural electrification projects, the RESIP explained that the: “FGN will through the REA engage all relevant stakeholders including the FGN MDAs involved in rural development and in particular those involved in rural electrification projects implementation: states and their rural electrification agencies, local governments, communities, industry, civil society groups, and financiers.”

“Engagement will include workshops, public consultations, private meetings, and capacity building to create the necessary interest and encourage the various actors to take over and complete some of the viable rural electrification projects that are on-going but with no clear source of funding.

“The REF will be used to provide financial support to those prioritized projects that meet the selection criteria established by REA. The REA would develop a comprehensive plan for handing over of these projects for completion by stakeholders,” it added.
ISAAC ANYAOGU