200 PHCs, All 104 Unity Schools In Nigeria To Enjoy 24-hour Solar Electricity

Honourable Minister of State, Power, Goddy Jedy Agba, OFR 

The federal government has announced plans to deploy solar energy solutions, under a special scheme to power 200 Primary Healthcare Centers and all 104 Unity Schools in the country.

The programme, implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency, (REA) is geared towards proving 24-hour for the health centres and schools.

Speaking, the Honourable Minister of State, Power, Goddy Jedy Agba, OFR, who is supersiving the implementing agency said that the initiative is part of government's promotion of the mini-grid solution as viable option to bridging electricity gap in the country.

He said that other components of the programme will include providing solar powered street lights to the host communities. 

The Minister maintained that apart from job opportunities that'll be enhanced through the programme, its objective is to improve healthcare delivery and services in rural communities as well as standard of learning and security in the schools. 

According to him, "Primary healthcare centres are critical facilities in rural communities. Over the years, inadequate power supply to them have been a major challenge. So, we want to bridge this gap by deploying solar energy solution to power 200 health centres in the country. We'll expand to others with time. 

We also realize that we can't improve the health centres and abandon the schools. Already, under the Energizing Education scheme of the government, implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency, 37 federal universities and five teaching hospitals are to be powered with 24-hour electricity through solar energy infrastructure. 

We've completed projects in some universities already in the pilot phase and commencing the second phase immediately to reach to more universities. We cannot power only tertiary institutions and forget the basics, this is why we've come up with this programme to power all the Unity Schools in the country".

While reiterating President Muhammadu Buhari 's commitment to improving electricity supply in rural areas, he commended the efforts of the REA team led by its Managing Director, Engr. Ahmad Salihijo.

Agba also appealed to stakeholders in the affected sector for cooperation for the smooth implementation of the programme even as he called on investors to take advantage of government's focus in renewable energy to investing in the sector.