More Nigerian Homes to be Energized as REA Signs 7 Additional Grant Agreements, Strengthen NEP-SHS Component
The Standalone Solar Home Systems for Households and MSMEs component under the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) has continued to gain prominence as Developers have consistently leveraged the programme’s Output Based Fund (OBF) subcomponent to deploy SHS systems to Nigerian homes, equitably across the entire nation.
Since its commencement, the OBF grant mechanism has proven to be highly effective in bridging the energy deficit as it is designed to provide fixed incentive grants of up to 20% of the cost of the system to the grantees per eligible system installed and verified. Also, applications for the OBF are on a rolling basis until funds assigned to the component is exhausted.
The number of companies signed into the SHS portfolio have risen over the last 24 months. On the 5th of October, 2021, 7 additional SHS companies (Lemi Renewable Energy Limited, Prince Albert Company Limited, Wavelength Integrated Power Services Limited, Sandstream Nigeria Limited, Prado Power Limited, Salpha Energy Limited and Asteven International Company Limited) signed Grant Agreements at the Headquarters of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) in Abuja, increasing the portfolio strength from 25 to 32.
Engr. Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, the MD/CEO of REA, while congratulating these companies at the grant signing meeting, encouraged representatives of the 7 SHS companies to optimize the NEP–OBF to improve energy access in homes across Nigeria using renewable technology.
Engr. Ahmad also emphasized the determination of the REA and the private companies “to secure a better future and increase the nation’s economic growth, as electricity remains a major catalyst to our country’s development”.
According to him, there are great investment opportunities in the renewable energy off-grid sector and working in lockstep with private sector players and developers will continue to transform the energy space while improving access to energy in Nigeria.
The Head, Project Management Unit of the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), Anita Otubu while echoing the thoughts of the Agency’s MD/CEO, explained that the SHS component has exceeded its Midterm project target of 120,000 solar home systems deployed under the OBF, by recording deployment of over 295,000 solar home systems to date.
She added that, with the signing of these new Grant Agreements, a more significant upscale in the Solar Home Systems market and distribution in Nigeria is expected to enable the REA to electrify over 1 million households by the end of the project in year 2023.
Click here to see photos from the signing