The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Electrification Agency, REA, Mr Ahmad Salihijo, says the Bola Tinubu-led administration has now taken a bold step towards ensuring food security in the country.
According to him, the recent deployment of solar mini-grids across agrarian communities nationwide is the first step towards food sufficiency. Gurin town in Fufore local government area of Adamawa state is known for rice production.
The REA has now installed 100 Kilowatt Solar Mini-grid in the community to mitigate the spiralling cost of energy due to the removal of subsidy on fuel. The 100Kw Solar Mini-grid power plant was built by the agency through a private developer.
Salihijo says the idea behind the mini-grid is to provide power for processing so that the rice millers’ dependency on petrol is reduced. Similar projects in the northeast geopolitical zone have seen five other communities equipped with 100Kw Solar Mini-grid systems.
There are a total of 40 isolated power distribution systems, alone in Adamawa, targeted at rural communities where the predominant activity there is agriculture.
The rice millers association in the state expressed satisfaction over the project, saying it has addressed power challenges experienced by their members