…says 85 million Nigerians live without electricity

By Gabriel Ewepu

ABUJA – IN a bid to solve power supply challenges to small businesses, the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria, REAN, Wednesday, disclosed moves to power 2,000 Small and Medium Enterprises, SMEs, with renewable energy within two years.

This was made known by the President, REAN, Ayo Ademilua, at a press conference on the sidelines of the Renewable Energy Conference 2025 with the theme ‘Stronger Together: Advancing Energy Access Through Policy, Finance, and Inclusion’ in Abuja.

Ademilua said advancing the initiative in partnership with the Small Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, SMEDAN, is to address the critical energy challenges SMEs grapple with on daily basis.

He said according to a survey conducted by REAN on 1,026 MSMEs in Lagos and Abuja, over 90 per cent of women-led enterprises experienced negative effects following the 2023 fuel subsidy removal, and added that the SMEs contribute to approximately 48 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP, hence reliable and affordable energy is essential.

Meanwhile, he explained the conference is to bring to the attention of government and other stakeholders of the state of renewable energy in Nigeria – clear, predictable, and supportive policy frameworks; Engagement with the National Assembly to accelerate climate and clean-energy legislation; Full implementation of the Electricity Act 2023, especially in mini-grid expansion, decentralized energy, and state-level regulation; Finance – The Catalyst; Access to affordable capital to scaling renewable energy.

He said: “So the plan of our project 2000 is to identify the 2000 SMEs first, and we are working with SMEDAN to do this, and we have been able to start that, and we have identified some.

“The next step is we are going to find a financing partner, and we are happy to declare that we have about five banks who have signified intention to finance this project for the users right now.

“And lastly, is how do we implement this? We have close to 400 members in REAN, and we have members in REAN that are installing. We have members in the value chain, and members in the training, human resources. So, it is very simple, if we get a 2000 SMEs, we are just simply going to share it.”

According to him, after finishing with the 2000 SMEs the association will upscale it to 10,000 SMEs, and he added that, “All materials and equipment that will be used will be purchased from REAN members to assure quality. All installers will be REAN members, and we will move in this to begin to drive to see how we can electrify Nigeria more.”

However, the REAN boss said with “Over 85 million citizens still without reliable electricity, the call for sustainable, affordable, and scalable energy solutions has become more urgent than ever”

Meanwhile, he said his association has taken it upon itself to drive government policies, enhance partnerships that would transform the nation’s energy sector, and bring on board modern innovations that will shape a cleaner and more inclusive energy future for Nigeria.

He also expressed concern about the skill gap in the renewable energy sector, which demands capacity building of manpower and to weed out quacks from the sector.

“We have huge percentage of unemployment in Nigeria as a gap, thereby we have in the renewable energy sector a lot of space to recruit more people into the labour force of the country. So this policy brief is opening up how we can get that done. It’s also going to be deepening local content, manufacturing and technology transfer.

“The opportunity that we have right now in our sector we believe is an opportunity and a call for us to grow our local content. It’s important for us to you know leverage this big opportunity to increase industrialization in renewable energy product equipment and materials. So we’re going to be engaging the government.”

On affordability of renewable energy by Nigerians as it is, the REAN boss explained that, “Currently, we have zero-duty payment on solar panels and we are beginning to have some more considerations for other materials. So we believe that this will definitely be bringing the cost of it down”, he said.

Meanwhile, he said there is no rivalry between renewable energy professionals with the electricity generating and distributing companies instead they work together, hence, no fear to sabotage the penetration of renewable energy as a source of energy to promote socioeconomic development of the country.

“I must say that GENCOs and DISCOs are not feeling threatened rather, we have a very good handshake”, he added.

He also spoke extensively on the efforts of REAN on standardization, and vowed that all fake products and those behind them would be flushed out as they collaborate with Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency, NEMSA, Standard Organization of Nigeria, SON, and other relevant agencies.