The World Bank has announced plans to commit an additional US$750 million to increase Nigerians’ access to electricity through the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP), according to a report by the new telegraph.
The report said the World Bank’s Director of Strategy and Operations for the Western Central African Region made this known while inspecting the 60 KiloWatts Mini-Grid Project in Kilankwa Community, Kwali Area Council of Abuja.
“This is the first national electrification project we see at work here, about $350 million is coming to a close, and we are preparing a successor project that will be $750 million.
“We are extending our support to something that we think is critical and Nigeria is leading the world in small grid development,” Ms Elizabeth Huybens said as carried by new telegraph.
The Kilankwa project would assist the country in providing access to electricity to more people faster than it could have done by just extending the national grid.
“So, I am very impressed that the grids in small communities work and there is also the foresight to think about how one can fully optimise the use of the electricity generated to expand productive activities.
“Like the rice mill that we have just seen, I hope that in the future, we will see a lot more of that,” she said.
She added that the project was considered because the bank believed that access to electricity by all was one of the most important goals to pursue by any country.
According to her, without electricity, it is hard to think about how communities can live, adding that kids cannot study at night.
“We cannot move toward electric vehicles if we don’t have electricity. You cannot even charge your cell phone without electricity.
“So, it is hard for me to think about modern life without electricity and it is hard for me to think about reducing poverty without access to electricity.
”And since the World Bank’s overarching goal is to help countries eradicate poverty, we need to help them provide access to electricity for its population,’’ Huybens said.
The Managing Director of REA, Mr Ahmad Salihijo said that the project was currently serving about 300 households and businesses.
Salihijo said that the project was developed by the World Bank under the Performance-Based Grant of NEP.
“This has been operational for some time now. So, we are privileged to have come here with the World Bank team to see how it is performing.
“We are working on ensuring productive use and also make sure that we have energy-efficient equipment connected to the mini-grid,” he said.
Yabo said that the project had assisted him to reduce the cost of diesel to run his business and enabled him to make more profit.
Dr Ackah said his outfit has ensured that renewable energy sources are run adding that their prices are passed through to protect investments and ensure customers get better service.
“We have implemented several reforms and one of them is the passage of guidelines for the energy sector. This is to ensure that consumers get access to net meters to help them have solar panels and sell some to the national grid when they get excess power.
“All these will help facilitate Ghana’s energy transition agenda,” he stated.
Dr. Ackah said the Commission uses postage stamp tariff to cushion power consumers in the rural to help accelerate socio-economic development in those deprived areas.
He encouraged minigrid and offgrid to meet Ghana’s 13 percent population without access to electricity.
Answering a question about how Ghana is helping women who constitute the majority of the population in the energy value chain, Dr. Ackah noted that women mostly use biomass for cooking stressing that it has health implications too.
He intimated that Ghana’s supply of sustainable energy like solar, LPG and other clean fuels would preserve women’s health and save their time.
The PURC boss also said that governments in Africa ought to intensify the supply of off-grid solutions to help small businesses like hairdressing and small shops to trigger economic development in rural communities.
He recalled that a sod was cut before the 2020 general elections but said immediately after the elections, the road was abandoned.
“If, indeed, the Roads and Highways Minister is serious or is concerned about petroleum products or concerned about Ghanaians, this road should have been a burden to him.
“I have nothing against the President because, from 2017, he instructed the Roads Minister to do this road. So, I can see a bad nut. The Minister is a bad nut,” Mr Nyaunu said.
The road was virtually empty when a section of the journalists visited the TOR-Kpone stretch of the road where several petroleum depots are dotted around.
On a working day like Monday, the road would have been very busy, but all the depots closed their gates, thereby, making the road virtually empty except for taxis that managed to ply the torn road to Kpone.
Sections of the road had developed deep holes and collected rainwater, making it difficult for tankers to ply the road.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com 
The conference, which is hosting 4,000 delegates across Africa and other parts of the world, creates the environment for participants to share their views on how to foster swift, prudent, practical and innovative suggestions in the continent’s desire to access cheap, reliable and sustainable energy for its people.
“For Kenya, this forum will provide us the opportunity to engage like-minded participants in clean energy generation, sustainable financing and innovative strategies to be employed in the sector for enhanced delivery,” Julius Migos Ogamba observed.
According to him, the platform also gives them the chance to strike investment partnerships in the sector to drive the area in Kenya particularly and Africa in general.
Concerning best governance cultural practices, the KenGen Chairman stressed that they adhere to the latest virtues in the industry and hopes to even deepen such practices to ensure that Africa’s future energy generations do not suffer from any negative environmental norms.
Africa has a huge geothermal potential, particularly in the Rift Valley, which extends from the Horn of Africa to Malawi.
The geothermal potential capacity for eastern Africa is more than 20 Gigawatts.
High geothermal power potential is located in eastern African countries such as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. The potential for geothermal energy in East Rift System countries is estimated at over 15,000megawatts.
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Energy and Petroleum, Davis Chirchir said they have been able to provide over 76 per cent of the people in the East African nation with electricity and hope to increase it further by the end of this year.
He emphasised that Kenya has vast land resources and that getting access to geothermal was easy, assuring all that reliance on traditional sources of fuel and its negative impact on the environment could be further reduced if they keep to geothermal and other renewable sources of energy.
Honourable Chirchir also urged participants to share their experiences and ideas to help Africa to deal with Africa’s environmental degradation, help to make energy cheap and also leverage their resources to take solutions for energy problems facing the continent.
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This year’s Africa Energy Forum, which was hosted in Kenya for the first time in Africa, attracted more than 4,000 delegates from Africa and other parts of the world.
The Forum brought together government officials, utilities, regulators, development finance institutions, commercial banks, power developers, technology providers, engineering, procurement, construction companies (EPCs) and professional services.
During the forum, Mr Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa held meetings with officials of Synergy Consulting, an independent international Financial Advisory Services Company, and Elecnor, the contractor who executed the Solar PV farm in Kaleo and Lawra, Ghana.
Mr Antwi-Darkwa also met with officials of Kenya Electricity and Generation Company (KenGen) to discuss future partnerships.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com 
