- REA to partner with the 36 states and the FCT to accelerate rural electrification in the country.
The Rural Electrification Agency(REA) has disclosed plans to partner with the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to boost rural electrification in remote areas. This plan was disclosed at the REA stakeholders’ workshop themed, ‘Collaboration with States for Accelerated Rural Electrification,’ held in Abuja.
The Managing Director, REA, Ahmad Salihijo, emphasised that every community deserved to have access to electricity and as such the agency was working with the 36 states and the FCT to achieve this. He said, “We are working tirelessly to have this section with the 36 states and the FCT. This shows that we can demonstrate that we want to have a collaborative effort in how we initiate and implement our projects. Because of the nature of the project that we implement throughout the country and given our mandates, every community deserves electricity.”
Salihijo added, “So we thought it is essential to bring you all here today to ensure that there is proper cultivation of ideas as we try to deliver on our mandate of providing electricity for rural communities.”
At the conference, the Minister of State for Power, Goddy Jeddy-Agba, called for an improved off-grid power solution to help reduce cases of grid collapse witnessed in Nigeria. He urged stakeholders and officials from various states at the workshop to collaborate and ensure off-grid power across the country. The minister observed that recent events had shown the need to focus on deploying more off-grid solutions to complement the efforts of the Federal Government in providing a reliable supply of electricity nationwide.