The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) says it spent over N28.7 billion out of the N31.7 billion allocated to in the 2023 appropriation on completion of electrification projects in the country.
The Managing Director of REA, Mr Abba Aliyu said this in Abuja on Monday at the agency’s 2023 capital project implementation report.
He said’’ out of the 2023 capital implementation, we have completed projects of over N28.7 billion out of the N31.7 billion allocated to REA.
“We still have about N3.3 billion projects that are ongoing, which we hope to complete in the next two months.”
Aliyu said that the agency spent N6.3 billion to connect communities within the country to the national grid.
He said that the grid extension specifically focused on extending the grid and deploying transformers at the distribution level to connect communities within the country to the national grid.
According to him, REA also spent about N131 million for the deployment of solar home systems across the country.
“ Out of the total money given to REA in 2023 capital appropriation the sum of N227 million was used for consultancy.
“ N446 million was used in deploying mini-grids that would electrify electric vehicles across the six geopolitical zones in the country which is a programmatic event that has been tested by REA and will be scaled up.
“ We have also spent about N131 million for the deployment of solar home systems across the country, ‘’ he said.
Aliyu said that REA also spent N626 million for the deployment of different mini-grids across the country.
He said that the mini-grids specifically focused on enhancing electric vehicle deployment.
He said that other area of focus of the mini-grid include energising agricultural clusters across the country.
“There is also N499 million spent for the deployment of solar street lights across the country.
“These solar street lights were deployed to areas facing security challenges to enhance security, ‘’ he said.
Aliyu said the agency spent N2.02 billion for the deployment of solar irrigation pumps across the country.
He said that the pumps were given to thousands of farmers across the country to enhance farming activities across the country.
Aliyu said that the distribution of the REA projects covers the entire six geo-political zones, 36 states and the FCT.
“It is also interesting to note that the intervention of REA in 2023 covered the entire country. There is no single state within the country that is not covered by our projects under the 2023 capital implementation.
“ The essence of this presentation is to ensure that we open the REA to the public and we provide accountability and transparency in all our activities, ‘’ he said.
On his part, Mr Umar Abdullahi, Executive Director, Technical Services, REA said in line with the mandate of the Federal Government, the agency had sustained its efforts of enhancing socio-economic activities of beneficiary communities.
Umar said that REA has optimised the deployment of multiple pumps for irrigation farming, Solar Home Systems and Solar Street Lights for security and community Illumination across the six geo-political zones of the country.
He said that REA has sustained its data-driven approach to the deployment of solar hybrid mini-grids and standalone mini grids for energy access, social development and economic growth through productive use.
“In the implementation of the 2023 capital projects, over 330 Kilowattspeak( kWp) capacity of sustainable energy have been deployed through the mini-grid technology, ‘’ he said..
According to him, over 1.4million Unserved and Underserved Nigerians were impacted through the implementation of the 2023 capital projects.(NAN)