Nigeria plans to begin charging 25 tertiary institutions and teaching hospitals for electricity from renewable-energy facilities built by the Federal Government, Power Minister Joseph Tegbe said on Wednesday in Abuja.
Quick facts
- The assets comprise 82 megawatts of solar-hybrid capacity.
- They were installed at 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals.
- The programme has been implemented through the Rural Electrification Agency since 2017.
- Beneficiaries include Ahmadu Bello University, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and the Federal University, Wukari.
Tegbe made the announcement at the launch of the state-owned Renewable Asset Management Company, or RAMCO. He said the tariff revenue would fund the upkeep of the government’s renewable-energy infrastructure nationwide.
Nigeria has often succeeded in constructing public assets but struggled to preserve them, Tegbe said, arguing that RAMCO would introduce a more sustainable operating model for renewable power. The country, he added, had endured unreliable and inadequate electricity for too long.
Several universities had thanked him after receiving free electricity for two years, Tegbe said. He told them that the free period had ended and that they would pay once the facilities were formally commissioned; teaching hospitals would face the same arrangement.
Rural Electrification Agency Managing Director Abba Aliyu backed the planned charges for renewable-energy facilities serving public institutions. He said the Federal Government, through REA, had installed 82 MW of solar-hybrid generation at 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals under the Energising Education Programme since 2017.
Aliyu said the government needed to recover the value of that investment through electricity payments so the facilities could remain operational. Since the state financed and REA constructed the systems, he said, the institutions using them should help preserve the assets by paying for the power they consume.
Education Minister Maruf Tunji Alausa, Health Minister of State Iziaq Adekunle Salako and other officials attended the Abuja event.
Other institutions covered by the renewable-energy rollout include Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, the University of Nigeria in Nsukka and the Federal University, Wukari, in Taraba State, alongside the three teaching hospitals.
