•Targets 17.5m Nigerians with DARES initiative

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA)  yesterday held the first grant signing ceremony under the World Bank-funded Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up (DARES) Project since its official launch in 2024.

The agency described it as a crucial step in Nigeria’s commitment to electrifying unserved and underserved communities, driving economic growth, and improving the quality of life for millions.

The DARES project is structured to catalyse the off-grid energy market through targeted grant support for mini-grid and standalone solar projects and is targeting the supply of renewable power to over 17.5 million Nigerians.

According to the REA, the signing reflected Nigeria’s intensified efforts to stimulate economic development, enhance social services, and foster inclusive growth through renewable energy deployment.

Under the Performance-Based Grant sub-component for isolated mini-grids, Privida Power Limited secured funding to deploy 2.47mw of solar mini-grids across 11 communities in Kogi state, delivering more than 11,000 new electricity connections.

The communities set to benefit include Abocho Ojogba, Emewe Efopa, Icheu, and others, with plant capacities ranging from 61kW to 704kW.

In addition, other companies — Baobab Plus, Salpha Energy, Asolar, NTA-StarTimes, A4&T, Sunking Greenlight Planet, Bboxx, and D.Light signed agreements under the Standalone Solar Systems (SAS) component to deliver solar solutions to rural households and micro, small, and medium enterprises across Nigeria.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the REA, Abba Aliyu, emphasised that the aim of the project is to create access and enhance the reliability of power supply in different areas.

“When we started, we commissioned the implementation of 42 interconnected mini-grids. Today, we are signing the first batch of grant agreements. These projects aim to electrify 17.5 million Nigerians.

“We intend to provide or to deploy 1,350 mini-grids. We also segregated the implementation of the projects in two different components. The first component is the deployment of mini-grid, be it isolated mini-grid or interconnected mini-grid. The second component is the deployment of solar home systems.

“The aim of this project is to create access and enhance the reliability of our intervention in different areas. The interconnected mini-grids that we are deploying, which we aim to deploy 125 of them, aim to enhance the reliability of electricity for the customers that are on Plan D and E. The isolated mini-grids will create access for communities that are without access in Nigeria,” Aliyu explained.

He added that a total of 82 companies, both national and international companies, applied for the grant agreement for the projects, with nine companies out of the 82 having submitted their sites.

“The total sites that have been submitted to date are 198 sites, which will give us an estimated over 340,000 connections and a total of 47 megawatts of additional clean, reliable electricity that will be added to the total capacity in the country.

For the solar home systems, he noted that a total of 36 companies applied for the grant agreement, of which eight qualified, and set  for additional deployment of 1.6 million solar home systems.

“The government of President Ahmed Tinubu, through the Renewed Hope Agenda, is facing the challenge of electricity access in the country, and we are committed to address that challenge.

“The issue of Nigeria without access to electricity will soon come to an end by the intervention and other projects that the REA is implementing,” he assured.

Also speaking,  the head of the Nigeria Electrification Programme (NEP), Mr. Femi Akinyelure, noted that since DARES became effective in December 2024, extensive consultations with stakeholders had helped refine the programme for maximum impact.

He highlighted the ongoing procurements for interconnected mini-grids and other pathways such as productive use equipment.

“We are looking to see how we can improve internal working processes to ensure that we are able to turn over these projects at the speed that is required even for the developers and the financiers alike.

“We have been open since December but this really marked that leap forward into implementation. And just to add that in the next few weeks, in the next couple of months also, these are just two major pathways that we have to address, particularly the isolated mini-grid and the SHS.

“We have quite a number of other pathways that will be opening, which include the interconnected mini-grids, which the procurement is already ongoing, and other standalone solar pathways that we have as it relates to productive use of equipment and all that,” Akinyelure stated.

In his contribution after the agreement signing, the CEO of Privida Power Limited, Mr. William Akalumhe, described the signing as a historic achievement and pledged to commence work in no distant time.

“We see this not just as energy access, but as a catalyst for economic development. By offering pay-as-you-go solutions in underserved areas, we are also promoting financial inclusion and job creation. We are committed to reaching the hardest-to-reach communities and ensuring that no Nigerian is left in the dark,” he noted.

The initiative is also expected to contribute to the broader Mission 300, a global effort to deliver energy access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

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