Sanusi Ohiare, executive director of rural electrification fund, Rural Electrification Agency (REA), says an estimated N5trn is expended yearly on importing, fuelling and maintaining generators by businesses in the country.
He said this at the presentation of off-grid and mini-grid goals of the REA at the fourth national council on power (NACOP) in Edo state.
Ohiare said the agency seeks to channel the $14 billion (N5trn) investment on generator into renewable energy.
This, he said, would provide access to cheaper electricity.
He said: “We thought that if we wanted to replace these technologies which is not efficient in terms of cost; if we wanted to go for cleaner and sustainable energy from renewable sources, we have potentially an investment of about $9.2bn annually (about N3.2trn).
“We want to channel that generator investment into renewables. There is a high potential for scaling up mini grids which is creating independent generation and distribution in different places especially in rural areas.”
According to Nigeria mini-grid investment brief on REA’s website, millions of commercially-viable businesses in the country are powered with expensive and unreliable power supply, hence getting off-grid solutions to scale and commercial viability in Nigeria will unlock an enormous market opportunity. (The Cable)
