Nigeria’s Federal Government has pledged to end the business of generating sets by meeting the energy demands of rural communities through sustainable renewal energy solution.
Yemi Osinbajo stated this at the inauguration of Nigerian Renewable Energy Roundtable on Tuesday in Abuja, Premium Times reports.
He said the FG through the Rural Electrification Agency is developing an energy database that will show community locations and energy demand profiles.
“I was in Wuna to see it for myself. For the first time in their existence, the village now has running water, solar powered. The school has power and the school hall is now used as a community hall in the evenings. Each home has four points of light.“Children can now stay up and do some studying at night. Many of Wuna’s women can now process their millet and yams at night. New jobs have been created, solar installers, maintenance, payment systems and so on.“One guy has lost his business in Wuna, the phone charger. Every household can now charge their phones. But he now charges phones of residents of other villages,’’ he said
He added that 20,000 more homes would be provided with solar electricity system in the first phase of the sustainable renewal energy solution project of the government.
Osinbajo said the plan was to expand the Solar Home System programme to 1 million households, and thereby “creating a few more million jobs’’.
“The Wuna home solar project is an example of how we can creatively and aggressively provide power to our people by this pragmatic approach to our energy mix.“We are convinced that renewable energy probably offers us the most sustainable means of increasing energy access to those who have no electricity and have no immediate hope of being connected to the national grid,” he said.
He also said the government was championing the use of mobile money for solar home system payments to provide access to lighting and electric power for small devices.