The House of Representatives has ordered an investigation of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) over investments in the renewable energy sector, as well as foreign grants so far received in relation to same.
To this end, the House Thursday mandated its Committee on Renewable Energy to investigate the MDAs on investment, procurement, and receipt of grants meant to develop the renewable energy sector from 2015 till date and report back within four weeks for further legislative action.
This was sequel to a motion by Hon. Jesse Onuakalusi on “Need to Investigate Investments in Renewable Energy Sector and Foreign Grants received from 2015 till Date,” stressing that poor electricity generation and distribution posed a great challenge to the country’s economic development and living conditions of its people, thus the needful for renewable energy options.
He recalled that successive governments since 2015 in an effort to address electricity supply challenges made huge investments and attracted multimillion-dollar foreign grants to the renewable energy subsector of the Power Industry in Nigeria to energise a viable and sustainable alternative energy and supply.
He said, “In December, 2023, the World Bank approved 750 million dollars facility to boost Renewable Energy in Nigeria, with the objective of providing over 17.5 million Nigerians with improved access to electricity through distributed Renewable Energy solutions.
“Also recall that in 2020, the federal government launched a 200 million dollars renewable energy project tagged “Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP)” to provide off-grid energy to over 500,000 people across 105,000 households in rural communities in Nigeria with facilities sourced from the African Development Bank (AfDB).
“Further recall that in 2023, the Rural Electrification Agency reported that over 2 billion dollars in renewable energy has been attracted in the past decade without any noticeable
improvement.”
