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By Constance Athekame
Electricity access is essential for people’s lives and livelihoods; from using fridges for storing food and medicine; charging mobile phones to stay connected; lighting up households and schools at night to powering local businesses.
Most people in many rural areas of Nigeria lack access to electricity and only few can afford costly diesel-powered generators that lead to pollution and noise endangering people’s life.
Solar-powered mini-grids could be the answer to rural communities’ access to electricity because it is well-suited to small, remote communities, renewable energy mini-grids can now be the cheaper, greener option.
Nigeria: One Year of Deepening Rural Electrification allafrica.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from allafrica.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Constance Athekame
Electricity access is essential for people’s lives and livelihoods; from using fridges for storing food and medicine; charging mobile phones to stay connected; lighting up households and schools at night to powering local businesses.
Most people in many rural areas of Nigeria lack access to electricity and only few can afford costly diesel-powered generators that lead to pollution and noise endangering people’s life.
Solar-powered mini-grids could be the answer to rural communities’ access to electricity because it is well-suited to small, remote communities, renewable energy mini-grids can now be the cheaper, greener option.
Providing electricity to rural populations can take three forms: grid extension; standalone solar systems; and mini-grids.
Despite being a very challenging year for most sectors of the Nigerian economy, many remote Nigerian rural communities have had a reason to celebrate, being beneficiaries of some of the most impactful government interventions in the power sector, writes Emmanuel Addeh
Having been appointed as Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) in December last year, Mr. Ahmad Salihijo, fully got down to work in January 2020, setting the tone as to the changes he was bringing to the operations of the agency saddled with the responsibility of powering unserved and underserved communities in the country.
If things were going to be done differently, it had to start from within. That prompted a series of engagements and house-cleaning sessions at the REA headquarters where extensive discussions on new plans to ensure better delivery of the agency’s mandate were put in place. This was followed by the strengthening of zonal offices for the work ahead.