In commemoration of Democracy Day, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has hailed the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) for its aggressive drive in deploying off-grid and mini-grid power solutions to power the nation’s underserved communities, universities, markets, and hospitals.
The President, in his Democracy Day broadcast, reiterated his administration’s stance that reliable electricity is a democratic dividend owed to every Nigerian. The President further highlighted the strides being made to permanently address the structural problems besetting the nation’s power sector under his leadership.
“To address the problems besetting the sector, I signed the Electricity Act, which grants states authority to generate, transmit, and distribute power.” “The Presidential Power Sector Task Force is working hard to reduce the metering deficit and has been authorised to raise a ₦4 trillion bond to settle verified legacy debts.
Alongside these reforms, the REA, supported by the World Bank and the African Development Bank is successfully ensuring that underserved communities participate fully in the nation’s growth story,” President Tinubu stated. Recall that last week the agency commissioned the largest solar hybrid mini-grid projects in North-central.
Delivered under the REA-DARES Performance-Based Grant (PBG) Programme funded by the World Bank and implemented by PriVida, the newly commissioned projects include major installations in Emewe Efopa, Dekina LGA (442kW), and Offa, Olamaboro LGA (704kW). This joins the growing portfolio of projects executed by the agency in the North-central.
So far, 11 mini-grid sites have been completed across Kogi State under the DARES PBG Programme, culminating in a combined 2.5MW of clean, decentralised energy infrastructure. The newly commissioned grids are expected to provide clean, reliable electricity to more than 5,000 households, while powering local businesses, schools, and healthcare facilities.
As of today, over 1000 mini grids are being developed across the country. Additionally, 48 Interconnected mini-grids are being deployed that will inject an additional 288MW of clean, reliable capacity in collaboration with 11 Distribution Companies. At the heart of this regional expansion is the World Bank-supported Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) initiative.
The project’s targets are aggressively mapped toward radical socio-economic transformation across the country: providing clean, reliable electricity to over 17.5 million Nigerians, directly powering more than 2.5 million households, and launching 1,350 localized mini-grids, including 250 highly efficient interconnected systems to permanently bridge the nation’s energy divide.
Beyond the DARES framework, the REA said it is leveraging diverse international alliances to target specialised industrial and urban economic hubs.