Favour NNABUGWU

The Nigerian Energy Support Programme, NESP, has commenced its intervention in five states in the country as part of activities to boost rural electrification with €24.5million

According to the Programme, the beneficiary states were selected by the Programme Steering Committee on the basis of objective selection criteria, and include, Ogun, Cross River, Niger, Plateau, and Sokoto.

NESP is being implemented by the Deutsche Gesellshaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ, a German Agency for International Cooperation, but co-funded by the European Union, EU and the German Government.

Deputy Head of Programme, Ms. Anke Maria Mueller, said the states are being supported to produce electrification plans and develop a data management system without giving further details on the financial implication for each state.

According to her, “The electrification of off-grid villages, social facilities and small businesses will demonstrate how renewable energy can contribute to providing electricity access to rural areas.”

She however noted that the total intervention fund is not only meant for rural electrification but includes some other intervention projects such as energy efficient and capacity proogramme.

According to her, “The total budget of the programme is €24.5million. However, there is no clearly allocated figure for our state interventions. The €24.5million will not only be allocated to the rural electrification intervention, but also to three other interventions (large scale renewable energies, energy efficiency and capacity development).”

She further explained that the intervention in rural electrification in each state will vary slightly, and there might also be differences in the allocation of resources to each.

“NESP has four units covering different aspects of the power sector. Unit 3 aims at further developing capacities, processes and framework conditions for Rural Electrification and Sustainable Energy Access. More specifically, it aims at,

“Improving the policy and institutional framework for Rural Electrification at the federal level; supporting five states in drawing up rural electrification plans for a coordinated large scale roll-out of off-grid electrification projects; and Implementing 10 pilot projects in the selected states demonstrating renewable energy based electrification solution.

“One of the first milestones of its cooperation with the states is to co-agree on lines of cooperation and formalize them in a Memorandum of Understanding. So far, NESP has signed three MoUs with Ogun, Cross River and Niger.

“NESP will formalise its collaboration with Plateau and Sokoto before the end of 2014. The signing ceremonies are high level events which gather His Excellency the Governor and high level representatives from NESP.”

Mueller further noted that Nigeria is the biggest hydropower producer with the largest oil reserves in the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, adding that the country also offered great potential for renewable energy.

She however bemoaned that Nigeria’s electricity sector is unable to meet the increasing demand for electricity. “Currently, only half of the installed capacity of 8,900 megawatts is available on the national power grid, and around 60 per cent of the population has no access to electricity.

“In rural areas this number increases to over 75 per cent. At the same time, neither industry nor households are sufficiently aware of the importance of using energy efficiently. In order to address the challenges in the electricity sector, the Nigerian government has initiated various reforms.”

For the private sector to play a more active role, Mueller said there needs to further harmonisation across the institutional landscape and between the current political, regulatory and legal frameworks.

She added that it is also necessary to build technical and administrative capacities so that the measures introduced by the federal government and the federal states can be properly planned and implemented.