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00:00:00I
00:00:01of am here live for the ultimate
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00:00:28news.
00:00:44of
00:00:52of of For decades millions of Nigerians have lived beyond the reach
00:00:56of national greed relying on expensive diesel generators, kerosin.
00:01:00lanterns
00:01:00a and
00:01:01a darkness, yet while public attention remains fixed on endless crisis
00:01:05of generation, transmission and distribution, another energy
00:01:09revolution has been unfolding and miss cause for
00:01:12decentralization
00:01:13of the transmission network, and the rural electrification agency
00:01:17has become one
00:01:18of the major drivers of Nigeria's renewable energy transition,
00:01:22but difficult questions remain: why do thousands of communities
00:01:26still remain in darkness? why has Nigerian failed to convert its
00:01:30mountains of municipal waste into
00:01:32in electricity, while many countries now generate power from
00:01:35wastes. are these billions in investment translating into
00:01:39of measurable improvements in the daily lives of ordinary
00:01:42Nigerians? today on fireworks, we put this questions
00:01:46directly to the man who
00:01:48of runs the rural electrification agency. as we examine whether Nigeria's
00:01:51off great revolution is truly transforming the nation's
00:01:55energy of future. I a shodu, this is
00:01:58Fireworks with put them on that
00:02:00a checks.
00:02:07of now
00:02:10of joining me on the hot seat is the managing director and chief executive
00:02:13officer
00:02:14of the rural electrification agency, dr. aba
00:02:17Aliu. yeah, um, dr. aba aleu, nice to have you on my talk
00:02:21today. thank you, thank you for having me. yeah, quite
00:02:25uh, an impressive work you're doing in reeral education
00:02:28agency over. 100
00:02:31uh over 100 renewable energy service uh centers
00:02:35with you connecting universities, public
00:02:37of institutions
00:02:38of and massive partnership, mean funding from donor
00:02:42agencies and all that, but despite this impressive
00:02:45statistics, millions of nigerians still go to bed
00:02:49in darkness, now at what point can we connect the
00:02:53dots, the mass the
00:02:55of impressive outlay and Nigerians having sufficient
00:02:58power supply. Thank you, thank you for this
00:03:02very good question
00:03:04of uh, to answer you, the dots are already been
00:03:07connected, number of uh
00:03:10transformation is taking place in the Nigerian uh
00:03:14renewable energy landscape and something up
00:03:18precedented, something that has never happened in the history
00:03:20of the country, and I give you statics, I give you the figures which you can
00:03:24go and verify, for the first time in the history of
00:03:27Nigeria over one thousand mini grids have
00:03:31been project developed across the country in different
00:03:35states, for the first time in the history of Nigeria, the
00:03:39country is implementing the biggest renewable energy access
00:03:43project in the entire world, a 750 million dollar
00:03:46project that will crystallize private sector funding of
00:03:501.1 billion dollars to deploy
00:03:53$1,350 mini greeds to electrify
00:03:5617.5
00:03:58a million
00:03:58of Nigerians and I repeat, 17.5 million
00:04:02Nigerians, which is as total as much as the
00:04:05in total population
00:04:05of some
00:04:06is what you have done or what you intend what we are currently doing, as
00:04:10at today, like I told you, over 1,us
00:04:13mini grids have been developed
00:04:14of as a today, we are we are
00:04:17deploying
00:04:18to 48 interconnected mini grids uh in
00:04:22collaboration with all the distribution companies here in
00:04:26Abuja, we in collaboration with Abuja disco, we are the...
00:04:30deploying
00:04:31of about 20 megawatt in jikwe 1, jikwe 2,
00:04:34oroso, dede and pekasa in if you
00:04:38go to kogi (december with Abuja distribution) we are doing it
00:04:42in dekina, if you go to
00:04:46kano in the collaboration with cano distribution company, we are
00:04:50injecting 10 megawatt in bichi,
00:04:53civic center, singa and um
00:04:57tarone shopping complex, Let's take a look at
00:05:01a it this way, the AEDC, the kedja distribution, whatever
00:05:05distribution companies are majorly in charge
00:05:08of the
00:05:09of grid, your own company Rea. is in charge the
00:05:13offgrade, now this massive statistics you're talking about
00:05:17is the offgrade, now what is the difference to
00:05:21the ordinary man, I don't care what it is, what matters at the end
00:05:25the day, let me have electricity, so what is the difference between
00:05:29this of grid or mini grid we call it or the
00:05:32grid system that keep collapsing? so you see the
00:05:36the what many of us are not aware
00:05:40of is apart from those of us that
00:05:43are living in communities where the grids
00:05:47reaches, there are many others that are in
00:05:51community where they are never connected with the with
00:05:54electricity, never, and in the wisdom of Mr.
00:05:58President, there are over 40 millions Nigerians
00:06:02that have never been connected to electricity, never,
00:06:06and and that is why Nigeria has the highest number of people that are without
00:06:10electricity access, so Mr. President, said the first thing is these
00:06:14people that many of us forgotten about, let's bring them
00:06:18first, let the let's get them connected, and that
00:06:22is why we embarked on this massive electrification,
00:06:25the 17.5 million that told you are out of this
00:06:2940 million that are going to be connected in this three years, okay,
00:06:33now but still some other nigerans that
00:06:37are also connected, but their supply is not
00:06:40reliable, which means they get less than six hours of electricity
00:06:44a day, so you're bringing them under, they also that
00:06:48category of people that are connected, but the the supply is not
00:06:51reliable, we are focusing on them to enhance the
00:06:55reliability, and that is why we created the interconnected
00:06:59mini grid, in this regard we deployed the
00:07:02generation, the solar farm within the community and still
00:07:06connect it with the main grid, so during the day
00:07:10they will get their electricity from the... solar farm in the night
00:07:14when the sun has gone down if there is electricity from the grid they
00:07:17get it, if there is none, we use the battery, that
00:07:21storage system that we deploy to power them, just before i go
00:07:25into the battery system and all the development of those batteries uh the
00:07:29mini grid those communities under the mini grid that are presently under the
00:07:33distribution companies and they're not doing effectively well, yes is that not an
00:07:36indictment on the various distribution companies because originally that is not supposed to be
00:07:40your forte, you to be the... on those who never
00:07:44had greed, now you're coming to where they operate, is it not
00:07:48an indictment on education companies? no, no, so so to to us,
00:07:51this is more like complementary efforts, but if they were
00:07:55efficient, they will need you, you will concentrate your
00:07:57effort, so so we
00:08:01can't continue to wit for them, right, and that is why in the
00:08:05wisdom of Mr. President, saying that, okay, let's also enhance the
00:08:09reliability of that supply, and the... the
00:08:12regulation and this happens not only in Nigeria, in all other part
00:08:16the world, there are this kind of complementary
00:08:20where you have the off grid, connecting with the on with the
00:08:24grid and enhancing the reliability, it happens, the if you
00:08:28go to Kenya, if you go to India, India have done it
00:08:31much more, and that is the same model that we are
00:08:35replicating uh, the jikwe that I mentioned in Abuja,
00:08:38pekasa, dede, they are all within agreed connection.
00:08:42but we are going there like theyday is an
00:08:46industrial cluster saying that they are getting less than 10 hours
00:08:50maybe let's go there and make sure that they get minimum
00:08:53of 22 20 to 22 hours so what is the financial burden on
00:08:57these people for instance the people in jikwe and all that what's the financial burden on them it's
00:09:01the same they just pay for band a band b or
00:09:05so it's still that we normally so our tariff
00:09:09model don't distributes we dis distribute
00:09:13each community that we go, we put the generation
00:09:17that is the solar palm and we would do the
00:09:20distribution network, we make sure that there is distribution network
00:09:24and we do the metering, we learn from the mistake the hungry, so when
00:09:28we go, we provide total package
00:09:31solution, degeneration,
00:09:34distribution, metering and even skader system
00:09:37because on my phone even monitor my mini grid to make sure
00:09:41that they are: operated that's the kind of thing we do all right uh let's
00:09:45quickly
00:09:46go a break and we
00:09:47come back we'll still have
00:09:48more to talk about real electrification please
00:09:51to stay
00:09:51with us
00:10:04now welcome back you're still to uh fireworks now uh we left up
00:10:08talking about uh the the many gridos communities what
00:10:11the is the more financial burden on them, but quickly let me go to this other issue: the
00:10:152023 electricity act empowers the various
00:10:19states to be able to generate electricity,
00:10:22distribute and have efficient power supply for. their people, three
00:10:26years down the line, would you say that the states have
00:10:30invested enough just beyond passing the
00:10:33laws, have invested enough to really have
00:10:37their people enjoy the benefit of that electricity
00:10:40acts. you see, the the it takes
00:10:44time for to see to start seeing
00:10:48the results, depending on different states,
00:10:51we what we did in rural electrification agency last. ye
00:10:55we created what we call the state by state round table where as at
00:10:59last year we had engagement with 27 states
00:11:03live and we made it mandatory that each uh
00:11:06engagement we have to have the executive governor there and in
00:11:10that regard what we normally did was to help
00:11:14in harmonizing the plans the state with that the federal government
00:11:18when it comes to renewable landscape and we have succeed we have seen
00:11:22a lot of traction uh we have seen traction in Adam
00:11:26state, I must tell you that the governor of Adam state
00:11:29had uh just last week had given us more than 40 hectares
00:11:33of land for about three interconnected mini grids that would
00:11:37inject about 20 megawatt in the states which is close to
00:11:4160% of what they get from the grid, we are adding that
00:11:45capacity into the state, the same thing we were in amburusa,
00:11:48what we have done the samething in Kogi, they
00:11:52are that act has really created. a
00:11:55synergy whereby the states and the federal
00:11:59represented by real electrification agency within the renewable
00:12:02landscape come together and developed a
00:12:05strategic means of for developing electricity
00:12:09infrastructure i ask is because lot of people would want to criticize
00:12:13this administration of president tunubu that i promise
00:12:16electricity and the lot millions still go
00:12:19to bed in darkness and you're talking about this electricity
00:12:23act.
00:12:25is what at kind fault? of revolution was it intended to create? what kind of
00:12:28a? i i want to
00:12:30make it categorically clear that it's
00:12:33ignorance the general public of
00:12:37what the president government is doing and tell you this and
00:12:41these are things that needs to be verified
00:12:45well who we are as much as possible going out and letting the general
00:12:48public get to understand what this government is doing.
00:12:52tell you first this president government is
00:12:56implementing the biggest publicly funded
00:12:59renewable energy project in the entire world, renewable
00:13:03energy access projects. apart from India,
00:13:07no country has done a massive
00:13:11ambitious energy access project, we are the
00:13:14second when it comes to that and we are now implementing our own
00:13:18where we are targeting 17.5 million niger
00:13:22under one project called distributed and through renewable
00:13:25energy scale of a $750 million dollar
00:13:29like told you that would incentivize private sector to bring in
00:13:321.1 billion that we are deploying
00:13:351,350 mini grids which as at today
00:13:39over 1,00 are being project develop and now we can give you the data
00:13:43anybody interested can ride to urural electification step by
00:13:47step that is one two this is the first
00:13:51time in the country where 48 interconnected mini gri
00:13:55that would inject fresh additional 288
00:13:58megw of new capacity that is been project
00:14:02deployed 80 48 interconnected mini
00:14:06gr 288 megw of capacity and
00:14:10give you all the location from delta to kaduna
00:14:13to oyo to ondo to
00:14:17aqua ibom to anambra and we were all in this
00:14:21state where we engaged with the governors and we requested
00:14:25for the land where we are going to put this massive
00:14:28infrastructure, we were a number with professor Charles
00:14:32Soludo where he promised to give the land,
00:14:36adama had already given the
00:14:38land, this are
00:14:42you saying in the next one, two years
00:14:45that states will not need to depend,
00:14:48we won't even reach two years, within the next one year all
00:14:52this project will be completed. already within the
00:14:56100 m remind you they will listen to absolutely oh
00:15:00absolutely now go to kano for example in kano go to
00:15:03ballagaza go to um rem mikia
00:15:07go to um um ambata they will tell you they are
00:15:11already getting the their mini greet go
00:15:14to um olamoboro go to
00:15:17dekina in kogi state they will tell you
00:15:21they are enjoying the electricity already
00:15:25so quickly look at you've invested so much in tertiary institutions, universities
00:15:29you've brought
00:15:30in the off all the many greed in there and the complain university
00:15:34used to have, we don't have enough power to run the system. system,
00:15:38it's no longer the complain. this are federal universities, you have not
00:15:41ventured into state universities, are you going to venture into state universities? and
00:15:45also beyond just providing electricity, what other benefit does the
00:15:49system derive from heavy investment in those
00:15:53facility? so we currently completed 15
00:15:56universities, 15 federal universities, all completed
00:15:59injecting close to 100 megw of capacity in those
00:16:03universities, massive infra renewable infrastructure.
00:16:07university of Abuja here it's about 5
00:16:11megw, university of Medugo 12 megawatt,
00:16:14potakot 11 megwatt,
00:16:17kalabasa, IMOri 8 megw, all this
00:16:20completed, now we the plan is
00:16:24to continue to do to cover all the federal
00:16:27universities, as we completed this 15, we are planning
00:16:31another set of 18, university of ibadan
00:16:34over, university of Lagos. university of
00:16:38Nigeria Insuka University of Benin University Amadubelo
00:16:42university federal university will carry tarab and the revenue generating the
00:16:45al in all these um universities we
00:16:49deployed the infrastructure we meeted them and they pay for the
00:16:52electricity now to answer your question what other benefit
00:16:56we are doing we are now leveraging on that
00:17:00asset to generate more funded for us to do other
00:17:03universities what i mean here the honorable minister of power
00:17:07approved the establishment of Ramco renewable energy asset management
00:17:11company, that Ramco, all these assets contract of
00:17:15this asset will be innovated into that Ramco, so the Ramco
00:17:19will be created with a balance sheet that has close to 200, 300
00:17:23million dollars and based on that asset balance
00:17:27sheet, the iramco will go to capital market and raise more
00:17:31funding that are would use to continue to cover other
00:17:34university, so we are not just waiting. not going to have
00:17:38funding money problem, we will not continue to wait
00:17:41till the public funding, we have been very creative
00:17:45to leverage on the asset that we created, working with mofy,
00:17:49ministry of finance um incorporated, working with
00:17:53them to now leverage on our asset to
00:17:56generate more funds to continue to deploy this infrastructure,
00:18:00impressive performance there there i will say, will you also
00:18:04consideruh government will look at making? need a priority
00:18:08like we have in the villa that it's it's solar and
00:18:12some people criticize the fact that it is solar but it's an alternative
00:18:15yes it is energy transition yes but there are several public
00:18:19institutions that are not connected that still run on
00:18:23generator and some people say wasting money and all
00:18:27that uh when we have we can develop the renewable energy for
00:18:30instance one the financial institution i don't want to mention the
00:18:34name is running 24st. on
00:18:38generating sets, what would you say
00:18:40is a government establishment? so the the we are one step
00:18:44ahead also in that regard, in if you look go back and
00:18:48analyze the uh 2025
00:18:51budget, you will see that the
00:18:55the president approved 100 billion nara for real electrification
00:18:58agency under a scheme that called national public sector
00:19:02solarization initiative, this is a
00:19:06specific initiative. that enhance that focuses on
00:19:10providing electricity to all the federal government
00:19:13institutions, be it within the FCT or
00:19:17outside the FCT, that had already commence, we looked
00:19:21at including the National Hospital, we are looking at some
00:19:25government top government agencies that I don't want to mention mention their
00:19:29names, well we are not looking if they are government instituted
00:19:33and they have revenue generated, we are not focusing on them, we are
00:19:36focusing: on critical that may not necessarily be government
00:19:40generating agencies first in this under the national
00:19:44public servization initiative and we had already started including
00:19:48government polytechnics including
00:19:52um medical centers federal medical centers across the country so will
00:19:56it be right to say that uh off grid electricity
00:19:59generation is the new normal in Nigeria not only in Nigeria
00:20:03all over the world now if it is the new normal in
00:20:07Nigeria like it is in some parts the world, will it
00:20:10is it just about solar? so so the the
00:20:14you consider offgrad through hydro
00:20:18offgraded through waste to energy, why i'm coming to the issue
00:20:21of waste to waste to power is that in the 774 local
00:20:25governments in Nigeria, they all have huge
00:20:29deposit of wastes and they are not
00:20:33utilizing it to generate electricity, what is happening to
00:20:37that asp? so so you see generation of electricity now
00:20:40it's no more a technical thing, there has to be a
00:20:44commercial, because the sustainability the
00:20:48electricity infrastructure. is contingent
00:20:51upon a commercial framework embedded that
00:20:55will ensure that that infrastructure continue to operate over a period of
00:20:58time and it is more even congent when it comes to
00:21:02renewable energy because the battery have
00:21:06lifespan of 10 years by after 10 years you have to replace it
00:21:10so that is why when before we go to adopt
00:21:13any means of generation we have to look at the economics
00:21:17what happens with the west to power it's a model that all over
00:21:21the world is being used to generate electricity, but the problem in
00:21:24Nigeria is that we do not have a structured means
00:21:28of depositing our west, so the west
00:21:32is all over scattered different places, but if that is economy they
00:21:36will do that, if it's structured in one place,
00:21:40because if I'm to generate electricity using waste, it means
00:21:44that I have to factor the cost of transportation of going to pick
00:21:47the ways in different locations. let me give you cexample, let me give you
00:21:51clear example, in abuda you have the ido, yes, in Lagos you
00:21:55have the olushosu, that is there, so there are states like
00:21:59that that have a central place where the deposit,
00:22:03but yet they are not generating, that's what we're talking about,
00:22:06yes, if we have a place where
00:22:10by one we have the west, and the west
00:22:14is the type that can generate the electricity, and there is
00:22:18continuous supply, remember? that we will be borning the west
00:22:21continuously to generate the electricity and we
00:22:25have to make sure that there is a supply chain that continue to bring the
00:22:29waste the quantity that we needed, we would generate you
00:22:32have the capacity to do that, so if a state as in state
00:22:36a is interested and have put
00:22:39in the logistic will look gladly, so which means you are
00:22:43waiting
00:22:43for them, absolutely, we would generate, the only thing, the
00:22:47only carv is that the cost of that. logistic, i should not
00:22:51burn it, because if i'm to cover at the cost of
00:22:55logistic, the tarif the electricity that we generate would
00:22:58be very high, and we will want to make sure that whatever we
00:23:02generate it's within the the limited tarif
00:23:06framework that we want, and why, and that
00:23:09is why we adopting a lot of solar, because solar, the the
00:23:12economics is right, the you don't once you deploy the
00:23:16infrastructure, the only thing you do is to continue to be clear. in
00:23:20the the panels so it's makes the cost of
00:23:24generation cheaper and and the
00:23:27amortized cost the infrastructure visais the tarif is
00:23:31within the allowaby rates that we can accept okay
00:23:35let's let's this this solar solar grid
00:23:39and all those pv panel the batteries do we have the
00:23:43local producing capacity for those litnum we talk about or
00:23:47is just uh litnum assembly plants the one celebrating is just we're just
00:23:51assembling or we have capacity to manufacture and
00:23:55actually make money from exporting the technology so this is
00:23:59another area of that this the
00:24:02the the government presidentubu is also championing and
00:24:06changing the directive before his assumption as the president the
00:24:10total manufacturing capacity of uh pv panel
00:24:13photovoltaic panels in Nigeria was just around
00:24:17120 megawatt capacity.
00:24:28in the pipeline, go to lego shagamu access, you will see
00:24:32more than four companies that are now in the process
00:24:36of building the manufacturing plant that will manufacture PB
00:24:39panels, go to Uyo, go to Bayalsa, go to Kano,
00:24:43you all see this manufacturing outfit coming up, and this is
00:24:47as result the Nigeria first. policy that Mr.
00:24:51President uh approved, which
00:24:53incentivized this companies, so we are reversing that trend.
00:24:57what we are even working is not just creating
00:25:01manufacturing outfit, but making Nigeria to be the
00:25:05manufacturing home of West Africa, manufacturing
00:25:08panels in Nigeria and distributing it in all over
00:25:12in all other part of, yes that it's already even
00:25:15started made in uh
00:25:18Nigeria. pb funnel in lagus in
00:25:22cotun lagos is already been exported
00:25:26to Accra Gana and being sold by a Nigerian company
00:25:30is already happening and the more we get this se 3.7
00:25:34gigawatt manufacturing capacity on board it will continue
00:25:37to to to take that direction
00:25:41of manufacturing Nigeria and export it to all the African camp we
00:25:44incentivize the private sector by providing them with
00:25:48capital grants. under result based
00:25:52framework for them to invest to to
00:25:56um deploy before we now they before they unlock the
00:25:59grand from us so they ent world bank
00:26:03financing that the federal government gave us, it's been
00:26:07implemented under a PPP arrangement
00:26:10and result based framework framework
00:26:14that partner between us and the private sector, so so
00:26:17this donor this financing
00:26:20by by donor countries and organizations is
00:26:24impressive and is massive, what if such
00:26:27funds are blocked? there was a time the US president donald trump blocked
00:26:31certain...
00:26:33uh uh funds, so what if it happens? you don't have that kind of
00:26:36allocation from the budget, so how will you survive? so so that is why we
00:26:40are already thinking ahead, even this regard we are like 10
00:26:44steps ahead, i just informed you the plan for
00:26:48rural electrification to leverage it is asset and go to capital
00:26:52market rais funding so that that balances up and at the
00:26:56same time we are also making the
00:26:59market matured, matured in the sense that... that we want to
00:27:03reach level where by the private sector we don't have to incentivize the private sector,
00:27:07the private sector had already gotten the confidence drive themselves, they can drive
00:27:11themselves, just lastly before we go, where do you derive
00:27:15this motivation and this drive to do what you're
00:27:18doing, because when Nigerian listen to what you have your
00:27:22scorecard, that do you get the motivation to do
00:27:24that? well for me, it's i
00:27:28feel that it's an obligation on me, um, when i was
00:27:32appointed as the MDO of Royal Electrification Agency when the former
00:27:36minister recommended me to Mr. President for appointment, I
00:27:40have never known the minister have not, he only heard of
00:27:44me and what I have done, if something like that can happen
00:27:47to someone in
00:27:49the democratic speech the president he mentioned your your agency, exactly, do
00:27:53you feel impressed with that? I feel more challenged for the
00:27:57present, thank you so much for
00:27:59coming. Thank you so
00:28:03much, now that is all that time will permit us to take on
00:28:07this particular edition of fireworks, until I come away again next week at the
00:28:10same time, I rem your
00:28:12sincer.
00:28:36every weekday on business Nigeria we uncover the secrets the
00:28:40financial world. We analyze the stock market, shares,
00:28:43bonds and the thrilling world of cryptocurrency. Fact
00:28:47matter: Our team dives deep to separate fact from
00:28:51popular opinion. We simplify complex
00:28:55government policies as it impacts your everyday life, helping you
00:28:58navigate the ever-changing financial landscape.
00:29:04Watch Business Nigeria every weekday at 2 pm only
00:29:07on TBC News, first with Breaking
00:29:10news.
00:29:14There is always more to story than the scriminad line. The
00:29:18part of story that is not told casts a shadow. It's like the
00:29:22part of an object
00:29:23that is not reached by light. On tv news I'm able to explore the many
00:29:27angers the out of story, talking to stakeholders, asking the
00:29:31difficult question. and dig in for facts, I believe the viewers are
00:29:35able to make better decision if they're well informed
00:29:39and understand not just a part but the complete
00:29:42story. TVs news fest with breaking
00:29:46news.
00:30:17Activa news, wherever the big news stories happening,
00:30:21we're get up to break it news, first
00:30:25with breaking
00:30:25news.
00:30:52On the news
00:30:53this hour, rescued
00:30:54war or kidnap victims undergo medical checks ups a day
00:30:57after regaining freedom.