- Abba Abubakar Aliyu, Managing Director of REA, unveils the DARES initiative at a summit hosted by NERC.
- Focus on strategic partnerships and innovative financing. Aliyu emphasized collaboration with RESCOs, interconnected mini-grids, and promoting productive electricity use.
Abba Abubakar Aliyu, Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), unveiled an ambitious initiative to transform energy access across Nigeria. This happened at the Summit on Accelerated Scale-up of Renewable and Distributed Energy Resources in Nigeria, hosted by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)
In his keynote address, Aliyu highlighted the upcoming Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up (DARES) initiative, generously funded by The World Bank. This initiative, building upon the successes of the Nigeria Electrification Programme (NEP), aims to propel Nigeria closer to achieving its ambitious electrification goals.
“Lack of access to electricity remains a pressing challenge,” Aliyu stated, emphasizing the critical role played by initiatives like NEP in bridging this gap, particularly in rural and underserved communities. “Through NEP, we have impacted over 7.8 million people across Nigeria, empowering local developers and fostering leadership in the renewable energy sector,” he added.
Aliyu further outlined DARES’s objectives, stating its primary goal to electrify an additional 17.5 million Nigerians. This expansion will be driven by strategic pillars, including the Electrification Act, collaboration with Renewable Energy Service Companies (RESCOs), deployment of innovative financial instruments, interconnected mini-grids, and promotion of productive use of electricity through Energy-as-a-Service (EaaS) models.
The summit, attended by key stakeholders and experts in the energy sector, served as a platform to discuss and endorse these crucial initiatives to accelerate energy access and sustainability in Nigeria.
Aliyu concluded with optimism, expressing confidence in DARES’s transformative impact and the collective efforts to ensure sustainable energy solutions for all Nigerians.
The DARES initiative marks a significant step towards realizing Nigeria’s energy ambitions. It promises a future where reliable electricity powers prosperity and development nationwide.