Press Release - NIGERIA DARES HITS MILESTONE AS REA SIGNS GRANTS WITH 8 RENEWABLE ENERGY COMPANIES TO EXPAND ENERGY ACCESS
Summary
The Nigeria DARES project aims to impact the lives of 17.5 million Nigerians.Under the Performance-Based Grant (PBG) sub-component for isolated mini-grids, Privida Power Limited secured grant to deploy 2.47 megawatts (MW) of solar mini-grids across eleven (11) communities in Kogi State, providing over 11,027 new connections.In addition, 8 companies under the Standalone Solar Systems (SAS) component, including Baobab Plus, Salpha Energy, Asolar, NTA-StarTimes, A4&T, Sunking Greenlight Planet, Bboxx and D.Light signed agreements to roll out tier 1 & 2 plug and play solutions to households and MSMEs to increase energy access to rural Nigeria.Speaking during the signing ceremony, Abba Aliyu Managing Director/CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency, highlighted the significance of the intervention:"Today marks a significant day. We are signing this grant agreement with one of our RESCOs, Privida Energy, which is committed to adding a total of 2.5 megawatts of reliable, clean electricity that will give us an additional 11,000 connections. Once again, we want to say thank you so very much for the work you are doing to impact the lives of Nigerians.Adding his voice to the significance of todays milestone, Ayo Ademilua, CEO of A4&T Power Solutions and President of the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN), stated:We may not really know the work that has gone into it, but from my position as the President of the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria, I know the engagements that weve had over the last one and a half years trying to prepare for this, and it really gladdens my heart to see our members, Privida, and the rest of the team at REA signing today. We know that its a living programme that will keep reiterating, that will keep getting adjusted, and we look forward to the impact that it will create in Nigeria.The Standalone Solar grantees joining today are expected to amplify this impact further, rapidly expanding affordable solar solutions across the most remote parts of Nigeria, one home, one business, and one dream at a time.This initiative also contributes to the broader Mission 300, a global effort to deliver energy access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. The project aims to empower state governments, enable private sector participation, and scale solar technologies to reach over 17.5 million Nigerians supporting the World Banks Mission300 agenda and Nigerias broader energy transition goals.