REA engages 20 states on energy entry roadmap

The Rural Electrification Company has engaged 20 states on a roadmap to increase electrical energy entry following the signing of the Electrical energy Act 2023.

The Managing Director/Chief Govt Officer, Abba Aliyu, disclosed this throughout a chat with TVC Information on Tuesday, explaining that the engagements had been geared toward presenting knowledge on unelectrified and underserved communities to state governments to assist sub-national participation in energy supply.

“Using on the Electrical energy Act of 2023 that was signed by Mr President, we accomplished engagement with 20 sub-nationals, 20 states, the place we introduced the info of the communities which might be unserved or underserved to the manager or the management of the state governors,” he mentioned.

In line with him, the train was designed to allow states to key into the implementation of the Electrical energy Act and perceive each the dimensions of electrical energy entry gaps and probably the most cost-effective choices for closing them.

“It’s with a view for the state to additionally key into the implementation of the Electrical energy Act, to get to know the communities which might be unserved and underserved, and to additionally get to know the least price of offering electrical energy to those communities,” Aliyu added.

The REA boss mentioned the engagements had been supported by newly accomplished nationwide knowledge mapping, which for the primary time supplies a complete image of electrical energy entry throughout Nigeria.

“From the info, we simply accomplished the Nationwide Electrification Technique and Implementation Plan, the place for the primary time within the historical past of Nigeria, we mapped the complete nation and recognized these communities which might be both unserved or underserved,” he mentioned.

Aliyu famous that the mapping train additionally captured the financial and socio-economic situations of communities, permitting the company to find out applicable electrification options.

“From my system, I can inform you the full variety of communities inside Nigeria which might be with out electrical energy entry, what the least price of offering them with this electrical energy is, and what number of households are inside these communities,” he acknowledged.

He positioned Nigeria’s electrical energy entry problem in a world context, saying the nation has the very best variety of folks with out electrical energy entry worldwide.

“Nigeria has the very best variety of folks with out electrical energy entry in the complete world,” Aliyu mentioned, including that estimates present “near 82 to 86 million folks with out dependable entry.”

He additional defined that whereas about 40 million Nigerians technically have entry to electrical energy, they undergo from poor high quality of provide.

“Over 40 million persons are these which might be on the grid aspect, which implies that they’ve entry, however they don’t have high quality of provide,” he mentioned.

Aliyu mentioned the company’s mandate was to handle each entry and reliability challenges, stressing that latest interventions, together with mini-grids and grid extensions, had been aligned with the data-driven roadmap now being shared with states.