The Rural Electrification Agency (REA), at the weekend, says it has secured funding from the World Bank and African Development Bank towards the implementation of Phase II and Phase III of the Energising Education Programme (EEP) respectively.
This was even as it commissioned the Energising Education Programme 8.25MWs Solar Hybrid Power Project at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, Benue State.
The Agency’s Managing Director (MD), Ahmad Salihijo, made the disclosure at the project commissioning in Makurdi, Benue State.
He explained that the EEP was designed to develop off-grid hybrid captive power solutions for the generation and provision of clean and sustainable power supply to 37 federal universities and seven university teaching hospitals across the country.
According to him, under Phase 1 of the programme, nine Federal Universities were selected from the six geo-political zones in Nigeria, with the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi being the selection for North Central Zone.
He said these phases will see to the design and construction of captive hybrid power plants across a total of 15 federal universities and two (2) Teaching Hospitals and will be implemented under the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP).
He also explained that the Programme implementation was designed to incorporate gender mainstreaming through the Female STEM Internship Programme.
“The STEM programme was targeted at training 20 female students per university on the various components in the Engineering, Procurement and Construction chain of power plant deployment.
“The programme was also targeted at rehabilitating existing electricity distribution infrastructure, providing designated street lighting for illumination and safety across campuses, as well as provision of a world-class renewables Workshop Training Center for each of the beneficiary institutions,” he said.
ALSO READ: Why APC lacks capacity to control Buhari administration ― Lukman, DG Progressive Governors Forum
So far, he said two power plants-the 2.8MW captive solar hybrid power project at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi State, on the 2nd of August 2019 and the 7.1MW captive solar hybrid project at Bayero University, Kano State on the 3rd of September 2019 have been commissioned under the programme.
He said: “This will be the third EEP Phase 1 site to be commissioned, with two others scheduled for commissioning in the coming weeks.
“Suffice to state that the project we are here to commission today has undergone the standard processes of design, construction and test-run. As part of the trial phase, the university has received power from the plant for a total of 137 days, and is therefore fully set for the operation to deliver reliable power to the staff and students of this noble institution.”
The MD, however, noted that reliability of the power will not only drive conducive learning but also boost research and development.
Salihijo added that: “This, we believe, is contributory towards the achievement of the goals set for the growth of Nigeria’s education sector under this administration’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan.”
and then