The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has entered into grant agreements with nine renewable energy companies to provide electricity access to 17.5 million Nigerians.
This marks the first collaboration under the World Bank-funded Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up (DARES) project, which was officially launched in 2024.
During the signing ceremony in Abuja on Monday, April 29, 2025, REA Managing Director Abba Aliyu stated that the project aims to electrify 17.5 million Nigerians by installing 1,350 mini-grids.
The initiative includes companies such as Privida Power Limited, Baobab Plus, Salpha Energy, Asolar, NTA-StarTimes, A4&T Power Solutions, Sunking Greenlight Planet, Bboxx, and D.Light.
The REA noted that this initiative also supports the broader Mission 300, a global campaign aimed at providing energy access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The REA boss explained that the interconnected mini-grids being deployed were intended to enhance the reliability of electricity supply to Band D and E customers, while also expanding access to underserved communities.
Aliyu said the project’s implementation was divided into two components namely, deployment of mini-grids (both isolated and interconnected), and deployment of solar home systems.
He stated that 198 sites had already been submitted under the project, projecting an estimated 340,000 new connections and the addition of 47 megawatts of clean, reliable electricity to the national grid.
