Traders at Sura market on Lagos Island have hailed the Federal Government for its new power supply initiative.
This is preparatory to the inauguration of the 1.5megawatts (Mw) independent power plant, built for traders at Sura Shopping Complex, by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Friday.
The traders praised the government for the initiative that allowed private sector to take charge in the power sector by providing off-grid electricity to captive customers.
The initiative, called ‘Energising Economies Initiative (EEI)’, is a Federal Government initiative implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
The project aims to support the rapid deployment of off-grid electricity solutions to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) within economic clusters, such as markets, shopping complexes and agricultural/industrial clusters, through private sector developers.
EEI has launched three pilot projects to electrify 50,000 shops in Sabon-Gari Market (Kano State), Ariaria Market (Abia State) and Sura Shopping Complex (Lagos State).
It has another 13 markets in Phase 1 at various stages of development and construction across the country leveraging solar home solutions and gas-to-power.
The Chairman of Shop Owners Association in Sura Shopping Complex, Mrs. Bunmi Ajayi, who spoke on behalf of the shop owners during an inspection of newly built 1.5Mw off-grid Independent Power Project (IPP) , praised the Federal Government for such initiative, describing it as timely for MSMEs survival in Nigeria.
The Head of Operations, Solad Power Holding LLC, Omotunde Hassan, said: “Solad is a power company and our mission is to deliver power to captive customers. Sura is one of those captive customers we have looked at under the EEI projects. In addition to that we have invested as co-developer for Sabon-gari market in Kano and Ariaria Market. There are also two other markets within the EEI platform we are looking at to co-invest in and support in developing power projects. One of the markets is in Osun State and the other one in Ogun State.”