- The community, established in 1932, has never had an electricity supply.
- The project will provide electricity to at least 700 homes in Araromi Oke-Odo.
Sholep Energy Limited has installed a 50 kilowatt (KW) solar hybrid mini-grid power plant in Osun State. The solar power plant will provide an agrarian community in the Osun State Government Forest Reservation Area with its first electricity supply since its creation in 1932. The project also included a clean water supply component. According to Sholep Energy’s Managing Director, Olalekan Adeleke, the project will provide electricity to at least 700 homes in Araromi Oke-Odo.
Adeleke said all the necessary equipment, including a newly installed 110kVA generator, is in place. He added, “We discovered that the village is viable. The project will provide power to the whole community, benefitting up to 700 houses. With our current capacity, we will have a surplus.” The Araromi Oke-Odo community leader, Oba Abass, emphasised that the community has never had an electricity supply since its creation in 1932.
The Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria (REA) lauded the energy access project. The Managing Director of REA, Ahmad Salihijo, said, “This ancient, agrarian community is accessing its very first energy source since it came into being in 1932. I equally commend the Project Developer for this particular project, Sholep Energy, for the dedication to community service from inception to the successful delivery of the Araromi Project. It is always appealing to see how previously unserved and underserved communities go through the journey of transformative change through the deployment of decentralised energy systems.”