For Nigeria to achieve functional, reliable and stable electricity, it needs at least $10 billion yearly for the next 10 to 20 years, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said.

   The minister spoke on Monday at the commissioning of the 2.5 megawatt Solar Hybrid power project at the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, saying that some other foundational bottlenecks needed to be fixed for the money to have meaning in revamping the power sector.

   Adelabu pointed out the legislative and policy foundation which this administration has achieved by signing the energy bill into an Act, noting: “This bill has achieved liberation and decentralisation of the power sector to enable all levels of government- federal state and local council to legally and morally play roles in the power sector at sub national levels.”

    “This has given autonomy to more than eleven states, and more are still coming. They can now play roles in the power sector from generation to transmission to distribution, even metering.  

“Secondly, we talk about infrastructure deficit, and then we talk about fixing infrastructure deficit, which has piled up over the last 60 years due to a lack of maintenance, a lack of additional investment to revive our transmission grid.”

    He also noted that there is a need to bridge over 50 per cent metering gap, which, according to him, the presidential initiative aims to achieve through the installation of 18 million meters in the next five years.”

MEANWHILE, the Federal Government, through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), has formalised new agreements with 32 renewable energy firms under the third call of its Rural Electrification Fund (REF), drawing a fresh N5.8 billion in private sector investments to power Nigeria’s off-grid communities.

   At the REF Call 3 Grant Award Signing Ceremony and Access to Finance (A2F) Workshop held yesterday in Abuja, REA Managing Director (MD), Abba Aliyu, announced the milestone achievements of the fund.  

   Represented by the Executive Director, Corporate Services, Ayoade Adegboyega, the MD stressed the agency’s growing footprint in clean energy development.

    According to him, REF interventions have so far delivered 16.6 Megawatts (MW) of installed renewable energy capacity, created over 26,000 jobs, and averted 91,720 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

    He noted that the REF initiatives have supported the deployment of 124 mini-grids, over 25,580 Solar Home Systems (SHS), and enabled 18,013 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). 

    Aliyu said that these interventions have positively impacted 183 communities across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), noting that alongside REF Calls One and Two, other programmes, such as the Interconnected Mini-grid Acceleration Scheme (IMAS), the Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP), and the De-risking Sustainable Off-Grid Lighting Solutions (DSOLS) have demonstrated what is achievable through bold vision and strategic execution.