Rural electrification hits 2.5 million people ― Executive Director

Ten per cent of the about two decades target for delivery of rural electricity has been reached, Executive Director. Rural Electrification Funds, Rural Electrification Agency, Dr Sanusu Ohiare, has said.

He explained the delay to lack of funding the laudable initiative aimed at serving the unserved population in the rural areas.

Ohiare said the agency was created to serve about 26 million Nigerians locked in the rural communities with low power needs of about 1-kilowatt hour for a month.

According to him, in Nigeria, “Over 80m Nigerians do not have access to quality electricity power; of this figure, 51m are tied to the grid, while for the off-grid which is the focus of the rural electrification agency some 32m are in this catchment of unserved and underserved.

He said the plan was to ensure that 26m rural dwellers are provided with mini-grid by 2030, for this target only 2.5m people have been reached which was less than 10% of the target.

Ohiari who spoke on Channels Television on Thursday morning monitored by our correspondent said the age y took off 12 years after it was established to execute this mandate.

The agency boss said they are exploring legal measures to expand the funding sources to this important national aspiration, which would elevate some of the Millennium Development Goals, especially, the fight against poverty and hunger.

At the moment, he noted that the agency is challenged with the letters from the office of the Auditor-General on remitting revenue for it straight to the federation account or being paid directly to her by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency (NER).

He noted that the agency would require $2.2bn to address the power deficit in the rural areas where renewable power was a good alternative and viable.

So far, the agency, according to him has raised $590m from all its revenue sources, to execute its mandate, a reality he noted has called for more innovative ways to raise funds to pursue the mandate of rural electrification.

He pointed out that the agency which was created in 2005 had a $4m seed deposit, it took off 12yrs later and has invested the money in various rural electrification projects and made some impacts.

According to him, about 400,00 household has been electrified and with an average of five persons per home, it is indeed a remarkable achievement.

This he said was outside the 3000 businesses in the rural communities served with electricity power and providing some 5,000 jobs.

This impact so far attained by the agency was due to the available resources and diligent planning.

Dr Ojeari said all these impacts are exclusive of the University community where it planned to effectively and efficiently serve the 37 universities in the phases.

Already he said the agency has powered 7 out of 9 universities in its first phase. According to him, the University community presented the agency with a hard template for knowing the exact population served. But it would have swelled the figure from 2.5 million people further.

Executive Director. Rural Electrification Funds, Rural Electrification Agency, said a new innovative platform that guarantees power in rural communities for 24 hours for a period of 20 years has been on in some communities.

Under this programme, he said 12 mini-grid companies have captured 5000 households already while another 51 mini-grid companies are working to cover 19,000 households. under the same arrangement.

This arrangement, he said, made for flexible payments by rural customers, who could offset their bills in the farming season and may not be capable to do so in monthly basis.

He said the reality in the rural areas was that they consume less power, and cited example of the billing option for aggregated costing estimated to be around N3000 max monthly..

He explained that they are usually out to their respective farms and business during the day and use power only at night unlike the urban area where power needs are very high and continuous.

He said the various power developer want to stimulate more demand to get more customer and have identified operations that could clusters the rural businesses with power availability, like providing power for grinding machines and fish freezers in rural fishing communities.

YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Buhari Urges MTN For Quality Service, Downward Price Review In Cost Of Data, Other Services

President Muhammadu Buhari Friday at State House Abuja urged the MTN Group to make the available top-of-the-range service to its Nigerian subscribers…  Rural electrification hits 2.5 million people  Rural electrification hits 2.5 million people  Rural electrification hits 2.5 million people  Rural electrification hits 2.5 million people