Nigeria second only to India in number of people without electricity – REA MD
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Abba Aliyu, has said Nigeria is the second country in the world with the highest number of people living without access to electricity.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday, Aliyu explained that only India has more people without power supply than Nigeria.
He however stressed that the current administration has put in place a structured plan to address what he called electricity poverty.
“I recently came across a post by The Economist which showed that only India has more people without electricity access than Nigeria. But unlike many other countries, Nigeria now has a well-structured plan to address this challenge,” he said.
Aliyu noted that the REA does not operate on the national grid but focuses on off-grid and underserved communities.
“If you have a problem with your Disco, that’s not within our mandate. Our focus is on communities without access to electricity,” he clarified.
Highlighting the agency’s ongoing projects, the REA boss pointed to the Distributed Access to Renewable Energy Scale (DARES) initiative, describing it as the largest public renewable energy project in the world.
According to him, the $750 million programme aims to deliver electricity to 17.5 million Nigerians who currently live without power.
