A brand new United International locations, UN record has recommended Nigeria for reaching vital milestones in increasing dependable power get admission to at a cheaper price via cutting edge subsidy frameworks and strategic off-grid interventions that experience attached greater than 5 million folks and created over 5,000 inexperienced jobs.
The findings, printed within the UN’s International Social Document 2026: The New Economics of Social Inclusion, spotlight the affect of the Rural Electrification Company (REA) in increasing fashionable power infrastructure to underserved and unserved communities around the nation.
The record additionally commends Nigeria and Ghana for main cutting edge agrivoltaics tasks that combine sun installations at once into running farmlands.
In keeping with the record, this style lets in communities to grow to be their meals and effort programs concurrently by means of harvesting daylight two times at the similar plot of land to optimise agricultural yields and blank energy technology.
Bringing up the Nigeria Electrification Venture (NEP) as a style coverage intervention, the UN famous that the strategic subsidisation of rural mini-grids has considerably reduced retail price lists for inclined populations whilst unlocking really extensive non-public capital.
The record printed that the initiative has supported the deployment of 125 mini-grids and facilitated the distribution of a couple of million Sun House Programs (SHS).
“Via those interventions, greater than 5 million Nigerians now have get admission to to dependable energy, sponsored by means of centered subsidies, lifeline price lists, and pay-as-you-go financing fashions designed to verify long-term affordability and popular get admission to,” the record learn partially.
The UN additionally emphasized that centered subsidies and differential pricing frameworks stay necessary to making sure an equitable power transition. Via prioritising power potency and off-grid answers in low-income spaces, creating international locations can protected prime returns on funding, cut back disparities in power get admission to, and stimulate native undertaking.
Reacting to the worldwide popularity, the Managing Director and Leader Government Officer of the REA, Abba Aliyu, mentioned the record validates the company’s core philosophy that rural electrification extends a long way past counting megawatts.
“It’s about development an power ecosystem that drives financial productiveness and uplifts livelihoods,” he mentioned.
Aliyu additionally recommended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for championing what he described as the sector’s greatest publicly funded renewable power portfolio, noting that the company has now facilitated greater than 1,000 mini-grid installations national.
He added that the REA’s increasing footprint continues to toughen agro-processing, make stronger agricultural yields, and bolster nationwide meals safety by means of powering irrigation programs, chilly garage amenities, and rural cottage industries.
Aliyu cited the hot commissioning of a 1MW mini-grid mission in Gombe State for example of the company’s efforts to extend power get admission to and strengthen rural financial actions.