..Lagos govt, REA sign MoU on rural electrification
A total of over N200 billion has been spent on the importation of Photo Voltaic (PV) panels into the country, the Managing Director, Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Abba Aliyu, has said.
Disclosing this during the round-table meeting and the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Lagos State Government and REA for the electrification of rural communities in Lagos, Aliyu said his agency is set to change the narrative, striving for the domestication of the manufacturing of renewable equipment in the country.
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He said he believed that Lagos, being the centre of excellence, is going to lead a total war in that domestication drive.
“While there is a need for that importation, one of the key things our agency is striving for is domesticating the manufacturing of this renewable equipment. Your excellency, Lagos, being the centre of excellence, is going to lead a total war in that domestication,” he said.
To this end, he said the agency has already crystallised the emergence of a PV panel manufacturing plant in Lagos.
“Here in Lagos, it’s a 100 megawatt capacity, and they are over there, they started production,” he said.
The REA boss also hinted that the agency is in the process of signing a joint development agreement with Green World, a lithium battery assembly plant in Lagos.
According to him, it is $150 million investment, taking place in Lagos.
Before the REA’s intervention, he said there was a PV panel manufacturing assembly plant in Ikotun, Lagos.
“They started with 10 megawatts, but with the collaboration with REA, they have moved and increased their capacity to an additional 100 megawatt capacity,” he said.
He told Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who was represented by his deputy, Dr Hamzat Obafemi, that was what the agency has been doing to domesticate the manufacturing of solar equipment, especially in the state.
Talking about innovation, he said: “We want to seek the approval of the Lagos State to pioneer the first floating solar power plant in Lagos.
“With the uniqueness challenge of limited land availability in Lagos State, we want to deploy an 80 megawatt in the University of Lagos. But we want to seek the approval of the state to give us that approval to make it a floating solar panel, which will be the first of its kind in Nigeria. And we hope that that approval will be granted to us.”
He also revealeda plan to sign the rooftop solar for public institutions, saying that Lagos State has been the first and the only state that has been qualified to benefit from this.