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President Bola Tinubu has approved $750 million for the deployment of 1,350 mini-grids to electrify over 2.5 million Nigerians.
Speaking when Alpha Morgan Bank and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) signed a N50 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to accelerate electricity access in underserved communities in Nigeria, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of REA, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, said that what is required to address the electricity challenge in Nigeria and enhance the reliability of supplies is about $23 billion.
“And what we have currently is less than $2.5 billion. So, that is why we need to continue to crowdfund this financing. And we are expecting any moment from now additional financing of $119 million from JICA. That will also be used for the deployment of interconnected mini-grid and isolated mini-grid.
“And that is why events like this are very important. We design all our projects in a performance-based framework, which means that the private sector has to perform before they can get access to the catalytic grant. And that provides an opportunity for the local finances to provide bridge financing to enable the private sector deliver so as to have access to this grant,” he said.
Also, in line with the rural electrification project, Stanbic IBTC Standard Bank and Lotus Bank provided $400 million and $100 billion, respectively.
“European Bank provided $150 billion and China has started putting the biggest source of renewable generation, 60,000 megawatt capacity, which is going to be the biggest single renewable energy generating infrastructure in the entire world. That single project will generate much more than the total electricity generation of the United Kingdom combined.
“It has been predicted by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) that the demand for electricity year by year in the next 10 years will continue to grow by 50 per cent. So, each year, there will be a 50 per cent increase in the demand of electricity in the next 10 years,” he said.
In his remarks, the MD/CEO of Alpha Morgan Bank, Ade Buraimo, who was represented by the Executive Director of the bank, Mrs Doyin Anyaehie, said that the bank’s intervention in rural electrification is basically for national development.
According to him, the intervention goes beyond providing financing. It drills down to what finance can achieve.
“It is the lives that will ultimately be transformed in the rural communities. We don’t know what people can achieve until you give them the opportunities. And power, as we all know, is one of the critical things for any society to develop.
“And so we thought we should partner with REA. We’re putting N50 billion on the table. Our success is going to go beyond this table. It’s what we can look to one or two years from now. That would be the real success for us.
“So, it’s beyond money. It’s the lives that we believe are going to be impacted,” he said..
