Nigeria’s renewable scale up gets boost with 19 SEforAll grants 

Business a.m.

Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) is providing grants to 19 clean energy developers in the country to scale up renewable energy by supporting the deployment of solar and battery storage systems to businesses and institutions across Nigeria.

The initiative is supported by a multi-donor results-based financing fund called the Universal Energy Facility (UEF), through its Stand-Alone Solar for Productive Use (SSPU) programme. According to a statement released by the firm, the new systems are expected to be fully installed and operational by the end of 2024.

The signing ceremony was attended by notable figures from the organisations involved in the initiative, including Damilola Ogunbiyi, chief executive of SEforALL and the UN secretary-general’s special representative; Shubham Chaudhuri, country director of the World Bank for Nigeria; and Aminu Umar-Sadiq, managing director of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA).

SEforALL highlighted the importance of the initiative to reliable clean electricity for homes, businesses, and institutions in transforming daily life and creating a better future. It noted that reliable clean electricity for homes, businesses, and institutions can transform daily life, unlocking economic opportunities and improving overall well-being.

Joseph Nganga, interim chief executive officer, Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, expressed his optimism about the initiative’s potential in marking a significant step forward for a sustainable future.

“By signing these grant agreements, the UEF is truly making a difference by empowering clean energy developers to bring their innovative solutions to life,” Nganga said.

According to the UEF, the expansion builds upon the success of its initial launch of the SSPU programme in February 2023 when 10 developers received grants to deploy SSPU units in underserved or unserved communities.

Following the initial launch, over 1,600 systems have been installed, serving over 1,200 businesses and institutions such as health and educational facilities in Nigeria.

The UEF stated further that it has seen significant progress not only in Nigeria but also in Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and Sierra Leone, with thousands of Africans reportedly benefitting from the facility.

Abba Aliyu, managing director, Rural Electrification Agency (REA), commenting on the development, remarked: “I am proud of the work we have all done to enable a better environment for the private sector to grow within the energy sector.”

Aliyu added that the  companies signing the grant agreements are a testament to the policies that have been put in place and capacity building efforts made in the past decade to build the sector.

Also speaking, Shubham Chaudhuri, country director, World Bank, Nigeria, said the UEF project will serve to complement the already existing Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project, launched by the World Bank in December, 2023, to improve electricity access through distributed renewable energy solutions in Nigeria.

“In combination with innovative financing solutions, such as those we are discussing today through the Universal Energy Facility among others, the DARES project will scale up productive use and clean energy to not only communities but also to Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSMEs) that form the backbone of Nigeria’s economy,” Chaudhuri said.