Government powers 12, 000 SMEs, eyes 300 economic clusters

About 12, 000 Small and Medium Scale Enterprises have been powered by renewable off-grid solutions across the country under the Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI) of the Federal Government.

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA), which is implementing the programme, also disclosed that 300 economic clusters are being identified for mini-grid solutions as part of measures to boost the economy of the country.

The Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI) is an initiative of the Federal Government aimed at electrifying economic clusters in Nigeria – which include markets, shopping plazas/complexes and industrial zones in line with the government goal of increasing electricity access.

Director of Promotions, Rural Electrification Agency, Ayang Ogbe said: “Over 300 clusters have been identified for electrification across the country in different phases. So far, over 12,000 shops are now receiving clean, safe, reliable and affordable electricity supply.”

According to him, the programme had commissioned the Sura Shopping Complex Independent Power Project in Lagos State powering 1,047 shops, as well as the Ariaria International Market (Independent Power Project), Aba, Abia State, powering over 4,000 shops.

He disclosed further that over 6,000 shops were energized at Sabon Gari market, Kano State with more connections in the pipeline, adding that the local developers advancing the programme included the Ariaria International Market Energy Solutions (AMES) Limited, Solad Integrated Power Solutions Limited, Rensource Energy Limited and Green Village Electricity (GVE) Projects Limited.

Some of the developers had earlier decried challenges being faced in progressing the initiative to include technical and legal solutions to customer bypass, funding constraints, gas unavailability, power shortage and system collapse due to system capacity, inadequate provision of metering, electricity vending system issues and challenges with customer service delivery.

Ogbe noted that the need for developers to deliver on their obligations as enshrined in their bilateral and tripartite agreements, adding that some obligations were not being met by the Developers in view of the performance of their projects.

“In addition, some of these challenges are externally induced (such as gas availability constraints). However, many of these challenges are within the developers control and they must do more to mitigate these and get their projects back on track,” Ogbe said.

He equally urged the developers to strengthen their communication culture by proactively updating customers on key information and technical issues in order to keep their stakeholders up-to-date.