The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has said the federal government plans to provide energy access to 95 million Nigerians that are currently unserved through Distributed Energy Resources (DRE).
Adelabu, who disclosed this Friday in Abuja at the Ministerial Sectoral briefings to mark the first anniversary of the President Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s administration, reiterated the federal government’s commitment to achieving the energy transition target of net zero carbon emissions by 2060, also through the DRE programme.
“The federal government of Nigeria is committed to achieving our Energy Transition target of net zero carbon emissions by 2060 and we believe the fastest way of providing energy access to 95 million Nigerians that are currently unserved will be through Distributed Energy Resources (DRE),” he said.
According to the minister, the DRE programme includes the investment and development of Mini and Micro Grids, Solar Home Systems, Solar Street Lights, and also the conclusion of the $550 million Nigeria Electrification Plan (NEP) which has bridged the energy access deficit by providing electricity to over 1.1 million households, MSMEs, educational and healthcare facilities in unserved and underserved rural communities.
He said already, due to the success of the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), the federal government “has finalised an additional $750 million facility to increase access to electricity for 2.5 million households through deployment of solar home systems and mini grids to households, MSMEs, educational and health facilities throughout Nigeria.”
He said further that, “In the next two months we will commission 35 MW of solar projects developed to power the following educational institutions: University of Abuja; Nigerian Defence Academy; Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta; University of Maiduguri and Teaching Hospital; Federal University, Gashua, and Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, in Abia state.”
