The Nigerian government has commenced the process of providing electricity to 5 million undeserved off-grid electricity consumers through its solar homes systems connection that targets 25 million Nigerians.
Ahmad Salihijo, managing director, Rural Electrification Agency (REA), said on Tuesday that the solar homes systems connection seeks to deliver three key objectives of increasing energy access through solar connections, increasing local content in the off-grid value chain in Nigeria, and providing jobs for those in the downstream solar market.
The scheme, he further explained, is expected to create 250,000 new jobs in the energy sector with the focus on deepening rural economic growth and uplifting small scale industries in off-grid manufacturing component business.
“The manufacturers and assemblers of these mini-grid components are the greatest winners as well as millions of Nigerians who will be lifted off energy poverty and drive a sustainable means of livelihood,” Salihijo said.
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“We’re encouraging private sector collaborators to come in and work closely with us and the community. We encourage them in REA to create cooperatives in communities to protect the solar installations to drive sustainable rural economy,” he said.
Chinedu Jeff, who represented the Central Bank of Nigeria’s development finance office, said the apex bank would support the solar homes solution through concessionary debt funding, access to the bank’s exchange window, tax relief and retail subsidies to indigenous manufacturers of solar off-grid solutions to deepen local content promotion.
On those eligible to access the fund, the apex bank official listed them to include “companies with local manufacturing or assembly operations centred around off-grid components such as solar PV panels, batteries, appliances, and packaging”.
He said the initiative is also a key component of the Economic Sustainability Plan of the Federal Government which seeks to restore livelihoods affected by the coronavirus pandemic while offering them economic platform to sustain their business.
FG commences electrification of 5m households, targets 25m Nigerians in solar connections
…indigenous solar component manufacturers to access concessionary loans
