The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has launched a collaboration with the federal government’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to speed up rural electrification in distant locations around the country.
It announced this at the recent REA Stakeholders’ Workshop in Abuja, which focused on “Collaboration with States for Accelerated Rural Electrification.”
Ahmad Salihijo, the REA’s Managing Director, stated that every community deserved access to power and that the organization was working with the 36 states and the FCT to achieve this goal.
“We are working nonstop to create this portion with the 36 states and the FCT,” he said. This demonstrates that we are willing to work together to initiate and implement projects.
“Because of the nature of the project that we implement throughout the country and given our mandates, every community deserves electricity.
“However, by calling on the states, we do understand the position that you play in ensuring that we are able to effectively deliver on our mandates through proper cultivation, especially with the structures that we have within the states.”
Salihijo added, “So we thought it is essential to bring you all here today so as to ensure that there is proper cultivation of ideas as we try to deliver on our mandate of providing electricity for rural communities.”
On his part, the Minister of State for Power, Goddy Jeddy-Agba, called for an improved off-grid power solution, as this would help reduce cases of grid collapse witnessed in Nigeria.
He urged stakeholders and officials from various states at the workshop to collaborate and ensure off-grid power across the country.
The minister observed that recent events had shown the need to focus on deploying more off-grid solutions to complement the efforts of the Federal Government in providing a reliable supply of electricity nationwide.
So I urge all of us to work together and come up with solutions so that by the next two years we should be able to say if there is national grid collapse, off-grid power will be able to support,” Jeddy-Agba stated.
He added, “To grow an economy, stable electricity is a key factor which cannot be over-emphasised.
“The Federal Government has equipped agencies such as the REA with the tools it needs to contribute its quota in ensuring that all Nigerians have access to electricity.”
