REA Strengthens Collaboration with Rocky Mountain Institute as the Agency Charts New Course in the Acceleration of Renewable Energy Interventions
The Ag. Managing Director/CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu alongside the Executive Management of the Agency received a delegation from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) headed by the Chief Executive Officer, Jon Creyst, accompanied by the Director - Global South, Ije Ikoku Okeke and the Nigerian Country Director, Suleiman Babamanu, on Tuesday 7th May, 2024 at the Corporate Headquarters of the Agency.
With a long-standing and impactful collaboration between both institutions, the meeting centered on exploration of new vistas for collaboration to strengthen the delivery of REA programmes and activities in a more systematic and sustainable way.
Speaking during the engagement, the Ag. MD/CEO briefed the delegation on the programmes and initiatives being implemented by the REA as well as some impact milestones achieved through the programmes over the years. Abba stated that, “the Agency has delivered over 150 mini grids to unserved and underserved communities, over 100 mini-grids to health facilities under the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) and over 2,000 solar-powered irrigation pumps to farming clusters across the nation.
Abba equally hinted on ongoing plans to commission the projects being deployed through the Energizing Education Programme (EEP), an initiative designed to energize Federal Universities and University Teaching Hospitals across the country, adding that in a few months, the EEP projects will be unveiled, starting with the commissioning of the solar hybrid power plant being constructed at the University of Abuja.
The MD/CEO of REA stressed the need for strategic collaborations in the renewable energy space, adding that the partnership between the REA and the RMI “is coming at a good time”. He explained “since our appointment, myself and the new Executive Management have hit the ground running on restructuring the Agency towards better service delivery. The REA would like to collaborate with RMI on various capacities to scale up on the programmes and initiatives the REA is implementing as well as other areas”.
While commending the vision of the new Executive Management towards strengthening and improving the REA’s service delivery, the CEO of RMI, Jon Creyst spoke on the REA’s impact footprints through its different programmes and initiatives. In the last 4 years, the REA has worked in lockstep with the RMI in the exploration of ag-energy efforts in last-mile communities through the implementation of the Energizing Agriculture Programme (EAP).
Creyst reiterated the RMI’s readiness to expand collaborative opportunities with the REA as the Agency charts a new course towards achieving its mandate, while delivering impactful and transformative projects to unserved and underserved Nigerians.
With a renewed sense of urgency, both institutions have committed to accelerating scale-up of energy access projects, access to sustainable funding, improvement in projects standards, reporting, capacity building and institutional knowledge scale-up, transparency as well as accountability.
