The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Education has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to enable eight additional universities to benefit 24 hour daily supply of solar powered electricity.
Prior to this MoU, 24 universities under phase one to three have been enjoying 24 hours daily solar powered electricity across the country.
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, at the signing ceremony on Wednesday noted that the partnership is aimed at scaling up the Energizing Education Programme (EEP).
It also aimed at extending decentralized solar power solutions across all Federal Educational Institutions in Nigeria
He stressed that no 21st-century learning environment can thrive without reliable and sustainable power supply and that inadequate power supply has hampered innovation, disrupted academic calendars, and weakened the functionality of research laboratories and ICT infrastructure in Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, and Vocational Institutions across the country.
"This partnership will change that narrative. Through this MOU, we are not only addressing energy poverty in our campuses, but also are advancing the energy transition goals of Nigeria, contributing to climate change mitigation, and improving the operational efficiency of our federal institutions.
"This is in alignment with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which prioritizes human capital development and robust infrastructure in our nation’s education system."
He commented the Rural Electrification Agency for the success of the Energizing Education Programme Phase I.
" The deployment of mini-grids that reached over seven million Nigerians is a testament to what can be achieved with vision and effective implementation.
"This next phase with the Ministry of Education as a full partner will institutionalise these gains and ensure that energy access becomes a permanent feature of our academic institutions.
"With the financial support from the World Bank and the African Development Bank, and the technical expertise of REA, we are confident that this initiation will provide clean, safe, and cost-effective energy solutions to our campuses.
"It will also significantly reduce the reliance of our institutions on diesel-powered generators, freeing up resources for core educational investments and services.
"I am particularly pleased that this agreement also covers capacity building, ensuring that our institutions develop the internal capabilities to manage and maintain these systems sustainably. By establishing implementation and monitoring units within the institutions, we are empowering them to take full ownership of their energy future." he stated.
The Minister pledged his ministry's commitment to the success of the partnership assuring all stakeholders, including institutional heads, development partners, and the communities of efforts for sustainability.
"To our partners at the REA, thank you for your steadfast commitment to innovation and rural development. We are proud to walk this journey with you. Together, we will light up the future of education in Nigeria, one campus at a time.
"Let us all commit ourselves to the implementation of this MOU with the urgency and excellence it deserves. For in powering our Universities, we are quite literally powering the dreams of millions of young Nigerians," he noted.
The Minister tasked all the Vice Chancellors to be more innovative in their programmes.
"We need our VCs to be more creative. You are Professors and you know enough. You have to adapt. You cants continue to do the same thing and expect different result.
"You create a better comfort for students to learn, better comfort for university lecturers to teach and to live. Create a different business value chain within the campus, the mini market, and even to the restaurant and everybody that works in the campus, in any campus is a community by itself.
"Now, 24 hours supply, you really unleash the capacity, the high economic activity that you see. This is a new day for Nigeria." he stated.
"This is actually the collaboration agreement that was signed between the Rural Electrification Agency and each of you our universities today, that's phase four. Phase one, phase two, phase three,we have 24 universities already benefited. They're doing amazing job.
"So you've had another eight universities signed a collaborating agreement today. Those projects will start soon, based on what the managing director told me they have the funding from the renewable infrastructure fund that was set up to enable this government to build a lot of infrastructures.
"We're building a lot of roads. We're building new dams across the country. This is just Nigeria. We are seeing all the benefits now." the Minister said
On his part, thhe Managing Director / CEO of REA, Abba Aliyu, explained about the project.
"So what you are seeing here is one of our intervention in the educational sector. We design a program called energy education where we provide this kind of delivery to different federal universities. Essence of that, as the Minister of Education said, is to just make sure that this University have reliable, sustainable and cost efficient electricity.
"Project phase one, two and three, we have deployed this infrastructure across 24 universities. The Universal project that you have seen is under phase two that we completed two universities and two teaching hospitals, adding about 60 megawatt of clean, reliable electricity.
"And as we have completed this, we started the phase three, which we are about to complete. We'll start commissioning in the next two months, and this covers eight universities and one teaching hospital, and as we are still completing the first three through infrastructure fund, we got some additional funding, and we've now signed a collaborative agreement to deploy this infrastructure in another eight universities.
"In total, so far, we have impacted over 600,000 students, over 50,000 academic staff, and also generating over 100 megawatt of electricity in our tertiary institutions."