The Federal Government has disclosed that it has electrified no fewer than 15 federal universities and teaching hospitals with hybrid solar grids with a combined capacity of 35.5 megawatts.
The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the
Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, stated this at the just-concluded
Alliance for Rural Electrification Energy Access Forum in Lagos.
Aliyu disclosed that the aim was to supply 24-hour
electricity to 350,000 students while giving 50,000 lecturers access to
electricity.
He explained that the Nigeria Electrification Project,
funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank, was a $550m project.
One of the universities, he said, included the University of
Maiduguri and its teaching, where a 12MW solar grid was installed.
Others are the University of Abuja; the Federal University,
Yobe; the Federal University of Calabar
and its teaching hospital; the Nigerian Defence Academy; the Federal University
of Agriculture, Abeokuta; the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture,
Umudike, and others.
The REA boss maintained that the projects in those academic
institutions would be launched by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, in
the next two months.
He added that similar projects were ongoing at the
University of Port Harcourt; the University of Uyo; the Federal University of
Technology, Owerri; the Federal University of Technology, Akure; the Federal
University, Lafia; Modibbo Adama University, Yola, and the Federal University,
Lokoja.
“The University of Maiduguri’s project is one of the biggest
ever done in this country. This is powering the entire university and the only
teaching hospital in the entire geopolitical zone. It is also supplying
electricity to the water treatment plant in Borno State. This is a 12MW project
that is almost completed, and it will be commissioned by the minister in the
next two months.
“These projects are going to impact 350,000 students with
24-hour electricity supply. It will also provide over 50,000 lecturers with
access to electricity,” Aliyu stated.
He added that over 150 mini-grids had been deployed across
the country, with 100 50-kilowatt containerised mini-grids across about 100
health institutions.
He stated that the agency would also launch an
interconnected mini-grid of about 1MW to serve 6,000 households in Ondo State.
On complaints that projects executed by the REA did not have
a national spread, Aliyu reacted, “The challenge is enormous. No matter the
intervention that REA does, you hardly see it until we can scale up to a more
significant level. No matter what we do, until we start deploying mini-grids in
thousands, that is when we can address this. We are still in the hundreds”.
President Bola Tinubu had approved a $750m World Bank loan
for the construction of 1,200 mini-grids in rural communities across the
country.
According to Aliyu, Tinubu approved the fund for distributed
access through a renewable energy scale-up project, which is aimed at providing
energy access to Nigerians in rural communities.