Osinbajo reassures 1m households on power supply

ACTING President Yemi Osinbajo has reassured that the federal government would provide renewable power to at least one million rural households that are not connected to the national grid.

He gave the reassurance during the Nigerian Renewable Energy Roundtable organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology in conjunction with the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Tuesday.

Osinbajo said government would embark on a first phase of 20,000 households under a Pay-As-You Go system before expanding it to one million.

He noted that Wuna, a rural village in Gwagwalada Local Government of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), is now enjoying power through renewable energy initiative by the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC).

The acting President informed that as a result to the initiative, Wuna Village’s inhabitants now have running water, with each home having four points of lights, and many women processing their millets with solar powered light.

He said the success of this village would soon be replicated in over one million rural settlements across the country.

Osinbajo said: “We are doing 20,000 more homes in this first phase of this exercise and a Pay-As-You-Go system to 20,000 households to provide access to lighting and electric power for small devices. The plan is to expand the Solar Home System program to 1 million households, creating a few more million jobs.”

According to him, “We are also championing the use of mobile money for solar home system payments.

“The Wuna home solar project is an example of how we can creatively and aggressively provide power to our people by this pragmatic approach to our energy mix.

“We are convinced that renewable energy probably offers us the most sustainable means of increasing energy access to those who have no electricity and have no immediate hope of being connected to the National grid.”

In his opening remarks, Minister for Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said his ministry was committed to pursuing alternative energy sources, assuring that it would continue as instrument of diversification in conjunction with the private sector.

He said the attention on renewable energy would benefit the rural areas and help create jobs as stated in the government’s economic recovery growth plan (ERGP).