REA seeks unified approach to expand electricity access across Nigeria

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is calling for a unified approach to expand electricity access across Nigeria. At the relaunch of the Off-Grid Stakeholder Coordination and Partnership Forum in Abuja, REA's Managing Director, Dr Abba Abubakar Aliyu, emphasized the need for stronger coordination among government agencies, state governments, development partners, private operators and other stakeholders.

He highlighted the importance of preventing project duplication, improving resource utilization and ensuring interventions reached those in need of electricity most. An AI analysis of the 2024 and 2025 Federal Government budgets revealed multiple power-related projects across various institutions, necessitating better coordination.

Aliyu noted that some agencies involved in electricity projects were not traditionally seen as major power-sector institutions. He warned that without better coordination, the sector would "simply be planning to fail." The REA also disclosed that it had encountered overlapping projects under different programmes, which has become more significant as funding for the sector continues to shrink.

To address this, Aliyu called for the creation of a centralized platform for sector data to help stakeholders identify existing projects, avoid duplication and determine areas requiring new interventions. The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, echoed these sentiments, stating that fragmentation is the "quiet tax" every under-coordinated sector pays, leading to duplicated effort, missed investment opportunities, and slower delivery of power.

Tegbe announced the establishment of a standing Off-Grid Coordination Secretariat to track commitments, risks and convene issue-based working groups. The Off-Grid Stakeholder Coordination and Partnership Forum, initially a donor roundtable, is being relaunched with a new coordination framework. Since its inception in 2017, the forum has contributed to electrifying over 7.5 million Nigerians through 200 solar hybrid mini-grids and 1.8 million solar home system connections.

The Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up programme aims to electrify an additional 17 million Nigerians and generate 465 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity, aligning with the broader Mission 300 initiative to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.