Nigeria’s federal government says small-scale solar “mini-grids” are rapidly gaining investor appeal as the country seeks more reliable and commercially sustainable power. Speaking in Lagos on Friday, Abba Aliyu, managing director of the Rural Electrification Agency, said mini-grids are emerging as a workable business framework for delivering electricity.
Aliyu argued that solar generation is increasingly able to reduce risks across Nigeria’s electricity sector, making it easier to mobilise large amounts of private funding. He said the sector’s real overhaul will require redirecting public spending away from funding entrenched inefficiencies and toward approaches that draw in private companies to deliver services.
The executive also pointed to the impact of federal solar programmes, saying they have helped reduce the burden of a problem that costs Nigerian businesses about $14 billion each year in power produced independently. “Too often, mini-grids are treated only as rural electrification projects,” he said, adding that “in practice, they amount to a new commercial model for supplying electricity.”
