The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has said unless there is a solid plan to sustain its $250 million Nigerian Electrification Project (NEP) being implemented under the Energising Education Programme (EEP) in universities and teaching hospitals for 20 to 50 years, the project should not be regarded as successful.
REA’s Managing Director Abba Aliyu said this at EEP stakeholders’ engagement forum (SEF) collaborative agreements in Abuja.
The agency signed the agreements with 15 universities.
Aliyu said: “The universities that have benefited from the deployment of these infrastructure are the lucky ones.
“But we cannot see ourselves as being successful without ensuring for those that are ongoing completion of the projects and, at the same time, ensuring the sustainability of these projects for over 20 to 50 years.
“That is when we will look back and say we have succeeded.”
The REA boss announced that a sustainability framework had been established for the projects because of the huge public fund that had been committed to it.
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He added: “The most important thing is ensuring the implementation and sustainability of these projects.
“A lot of money has been committed – public sector funding of over $250 million has been spent on both phases two and three of this project to deploy the infrastructure, to build distribution network, to upgrade substations, to meter all the connecting areas within the universities.
“At the same time, we want to build a world-class training centre and establish a foundation for training students within these universities on renewable energy.”
Aliyu said public funds had also been committed to engage different consultants who reviewed phase one as well as different international projects of similar type to come up with the sustainability plan.
He urged the stakeholders to show commitment to the completion and operation of the power plans as well as to their sustainability.
NEP’s Head, Olufemi Akinyelure, announced that the phase three of the project would be due for inauguration in the first quarter of next years.
He said: “We have started works. The preliminary work has started; the civil work has also started. Necessary equipment have been ordered; some of them have started landing. We are very hopeful that by the first quarter of next year, we will start inaugurating those universities as well.”
