REA MD Abba Aliyu says Nigeria has the world’s second-largest population without electricity but highlights new government-backed initiatives to tackle the crisis.
The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Abba Aliyu, has revealed that Nigeria ranks second only to India in the number of people living without electricity.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief on Monday, Aliyu described the situation as “electricity poverty” but stressed that the federal government has put in place a structured plan to address it. “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.
He explained that the REA does not manage issues tied to electricity distribution companies but instead focuses on underserved and off-grid communities. Aliyu highlighted the Distributed Access to Renewable Energy Scale (DARES) project, a $750 million programme he described as the world’s largest public renewable energy initiative, designed to provide power to 17.5 million Nigerians currently without access.