How REA is increasing electricity access to underserved Nigerians through NEP

Issues relating to access to electricity have become one of the most important issues confronting the world today as concerns are raised on how to provide sufficient energy to meet the requirements of a growing world with rising living standards, according to the World Bank.

For instance, West Africa has one of the lowest rates of electricity access in the world with only about 42% of the total population and 8% of rural residents, having access to electricity, yet only three countries are on track to provide access to electricity by 2030.

“At this slow pace, 263 million people in the region will be left without electricity in ten years,” the World Bank said in its ‘Putting Africa on the path to universal electricity access’ report.

Similarly, the 2022 Energy Progress Report released by Tracking SDG 7 states that Nigeria has the lowest access to electricity globally, with about 92 million persons lacking access to power which is stifling the country’s industrial growth and causing other problems.

The World Bank noted that tackling Africa’s energy access crisis requires significant efforts, one of which is that West and Central African countries need to look beyond their borders and further integrate their national utilities and grids to other systems in the region.

However, the Nigeria Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has stepped in to increase electricity access to unserved and underserved Nigerians, with the implementation of Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP).

The NEP, funded through a $550 million loan facility from the World Bank and African Development Bank is targeted at providing off-grid reliable and clean electricity supply to 705,000 households, 90,000 small and medium enterprises, 100 Isolation and treatment centers and 400 Primary healthcare centers in unserved and underserved areas of Nigeria.

Access to constant power supply in educational institutions and healthcare facilities in Nigeria has been identified as a major challenge as well as a barrier to effective learning, institutional operations, student residency and access to quality healthcare

It also targets the provision of captive solar hybrid power plants to 15 federal tertiary institutions and two teaching hospitals.

According to Ahmad-Salihijo Ahmad, the managing director of REA, the agency has completed the installation of 67 mini-grids with 995,396 solar home systems deployed and over million households electrified across Nigeria.

Ahmad explained that the $550million financing from both the World Bank ($350million) and the African Development Bank ($200million) for the implementation of the project aligned with the rural electrification strategy and implementation plan and the power sector recovery plan.

“The Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) is an initiative of the Federal Government implemented by the REA to accelerate the off-grid renewable energy private sector market and bridge the overall energy access deficit.

“The NEP aims to provide electricity to households, small businesses, educational and healthcare facilities in unserved and underserved rural communities through the deployment of solar hybrid mini grids, Solar Home Systems (SHS), captive hybrid power plants and energy efficient productive use equipment/appliances,” he said.

He further said, of out of over $392 million commitment received so far, $64.8 million has been disbursed to private sector partners for the execution of the projects.

unserved and underserved Nigerians. How it goes about doing this depends on where the funding comes from.

“According to the rural electrification strategy plan, we have targets to reach Nigerians everywhere in the country and the numbers at the moment, are being quoted to be as high as 80 million people,” Ahmad said.