Nigeria

Nigeria’s Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) Taskforce, which aims to accelerate modern electricity access initiatives by tackling the most pressing industry challenges, met on November 12, 2018 to review the success of the taskforce since its creation in February 2018.

Five key barriers are preventing the scaling of off-grid renewable solutions in Nigeria: 1. tariffs and duties, 2. consumer awareness, 3. collaborative data sharing, 4. end-user payments and 5. standardization and certification.

Power for All wrapped up its DRE101 trainings under the Scaling Off-Grid Energy (SOGE) project with two trainings in the Nigerian cities of Kano and Ibadan. The workshops were targeted at policymakers from the North-West and South-West states respectively.

Nigeria’s Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) Taskforce, which was launched in February to accelerate modern electricity access initiatives, met July 17, 2018, to review its success since its last meeting and set new milestones to be reached in order to grow the sector.

Power for All, a global advocacy campaign for distributed renewable energy (DRE) is helping policymakers, faith-based institutions, civil society organizations and trade associations in the South West region to use renewable energy solutions to accelerate the rate of electrification and end energy poverty in the region.

The North-West region is Nigeria’s second largest geopolitical zone, made up of 7 states which cover 216,065km2 and an estimated population of 45 million people, but yet its least electrified region with only 14.6 million people having access to electricity with the bulk of the un-electrified in rural communities.

During two regional DRE 101 workshop in Kogi and Enugu with high-level state and regional policymakers, the Power for All team received a deluge of requests from other states for similar training. Power for All has been conducting the trainings as part of the Scaling Off-Grid Energy (SOGE) project, but was only funded to do a series of six regions.

One of the major objectives of the Scaling Off-Grid Energy project (SOGE), funded by USAID and Power Africa and co-implemented in Nigeria by Power for All and FHI360, is to increase awareness and knowledge among sub-national policymakers of how decentralized renewable energy (DRE) solutions can accelerate energy access. The main platform for meeting this goal is a 6-part series of regional workshops, called DRE101, with the first two already held in Kogi State, North-Central Nigeria, and Enugu State, South-Eastern Nigeria.

CALABAR, June 18th, 2018—Power for All, a global advocacy campaign for distributed renewable energy (DRE), conducted two workshops for policymakers, faith-based institutions, civil society organizations and trade associations in the South-South region of Nigeria on how to use DRE solutions to accelerate the rate of electrification and end energy poverty in the region.

Igu, a farming village in Nigeria of about 4000 people, has never had electricity, despite being located in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, just an hour’s drive from the seat of Nigeria's Federal Government, Abuja. For villages like Igu, getting access to energy has until now remained a far-fetched dream.

Recent research by Power for All’s on-the-ground country campaign finds that the Nigerian decentralized renewable energy (DRE) market is large and proven, but the capital required to finance this market remains to be unlocked.

Electrifying all Nigerians has become a priority in this populous West African country, where approximately 75 million still remain in darkness even as the economy surges ahead in other ways. Now, the power sector is focused on getting safe, reliable energy to the entire population.

Nigeria’s Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) Taskforce, which was launched in February to accelerate modern electricity access initiatives, met April 18 to tackle pressing challenges for the DRE sector, including a new tariff on solar panel imports.

Recognition of energy access impact on women is growing, and nowhere is this shift more evident than in Sub-Saharan African countries. Women are emerging not just as consumers of a new wave of innovative energy access products and services, but also as leading entrepreneurs and leaders shaping the industry.

ABUJA, Nigeria, March 23, 2018—Power for All, a global advocacy campaign for distributed renewable energy (DRE), has concluded two workshops in the North-Central and South-East regions of Nigeria on phasing out inefficient lighting such as kerosene lamps, and enabling a transition to the use of clean, distributed lighting solutions.

Damilola Ogunbiyi, the managing director of the Nigerian Rural Electrification Agency (REA), is responsible for implementing the Nigerian Off Grid Electrification Program and the Nigerian Electrification Project, a $350 million World Bank facility to rapidly increase the deployment of solar mini grids and solar home systems to bring electricity to the country's 80 million people still living without access to power. She is also responsible for the Energizing Education Program, an effort by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to provide uninterrupted electricity to students at 37 federal universities and seven university teaching hospitals through off-grid captive power plants.

ABUJA, February 15, 2018—A Decentralized Renewable Energy (DRE) Taskforce to accelerate modern energy access initiatives was launched today by a coalition of partners.

The Government of Nigeria, civil society and private sector joined forces last week in a Call to Action on energy access. At the event, attended by Federal Ministry of Power Permanent Secretary, Engineer Louis Edozien, a range of companies, civil society organizations and the rural electrification agency made powerful commitments to undertake activities that will accelerate the growth of the distributed renewable energy (DRE) market—vital for reaching Nigeria’s unelectrified population, which has grown from 44 million to 75 million since 1990 (SE4ALL, 2015).

Nigeria has one of the greatest energy access challenges in the world, with an unelectrified population of 75 million people (SE4ALL, 2015). Decades of policy focused on grid expansion have not only failed to deliver improvements in energy access; they have failed to keep up with population growth. The unelectrified population has grown from 44 million in 1990 to 75 million in 2015—an increase of 70%. The cost of the energy access deficit is huge, and is borne by households, businesses and the government.

The buzz around decentralized renewable energy has so far mostly been in East Africa and South Asia, i.e. high-flying Kenya and massive India and Bangladesh. 2017 will see growth of decentralized energy into new frontiers. And thanks to Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll), we now have a clearer picture of where the biggest opportunities for renewable energy to close the access gap are. The SEforAll “Heat Maps” identify the countries where the electricity deficit is highest, as well as the countries of high-impact for renewables penetration. If you overlay those, factor in which national governments are embracing decentralized renewables, then account for countries where finance and businesses are ready to scale, we have a pretty solid idea of what’s coming in terms of potential “new wins” for the sector in 2017, including:

Lagos, Nov. 24, 2016 -- Today industry leaders come together for the launch of the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN) at the West African Power Industry Convention. The launch will be attended by guests from over 100 organizations working in, and supporting, the renewable energy sector in Nigeria.

Is Nigeria on the cusp of an energy access explosion? The award-winning Solar Nigeria program has already powered 172 schools and 11 health centers and is now working with private partners to bring solar to over 2.5 million homes.

More than 600 million people in Africa live without electricity, and in just 15 years energy will be needed for another 500 million more as the population soars. Nigeria alone could be home to nearly 1 billion people by 2100, with Africa home to five billion.