The federal government has disclosed a new initiative requiring public institutions benefiting from solar electricity to pay tariffs, to enable maintenance of the infrastructure and prevent deterioration.
The plan was disclosed during the launch of the Renewable Assets Management Company (RAMCO) by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) on Wednesday. The agency said the introduction of asset management is meant to end the culture of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) returning to government to seek new funds for the same projects a few years after completion.
Speaking at the event, REA Managing Director Aliyu Abba Abubakar said the decision to establish RAMCO followed an investigation showing that early solar projects could not be maintained despite providing free electricity and enabling beneficiary agencies to cut billions from diesel generator costs.
He explained that RAMCO is not a revenue-generating company but will serve as an emergency funds vehicle for institutions when installations develop faults, removing reliance on government coffers for repairs. He said RAMCO is an institution built to learn, improve and continue regardless of leadership changes, incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act with Federal Government interests held through the Ministry of Finance Incorporated and governed by a professional board.
Its mandate, he said, is to manage publicly financed renewable-energy assets professionally, contract competent operators, meter, bill and collect, maintain sustainability reserves for major equipment replacement, and report transparently on asset performance.
He said the goal is to avoid returning to the treasury for emergency funding when equipment like batteries or inverters need replacement years later, since the money should already be set aside. He described the sustainability tariff not as a new expense but as a redirection of funds institutions would otherwise spend on expensive, unreliable power towards preserving reliable electricity infrastructure.
Abubakar disclosed that Nigeria had committed about N263 billion to solar-hybrid generation under the Energising Education Programme (EEP), covering 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals.
Since the programme began in 2017, about 82MW of solar-hybrid generation has been deployed, with more than 150MW under construction or in the pipeline through EEP phases, the Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES), the National Public Sector Solarisation Initiative, TETFund projects and the Desert to Power programme.
However, an assessment of seven sites delivered under the first phase of EEP found only three in good or usable condition, a deterioration Abubakar linked to the absence of sustainable maintenance arrangements, reliable revenue mechanisms and clearly designated institutions responsible for managing the assets.
Minister of Power Joseph Tegbe said the tariff would be set at a level that is both appropriate and sustainable, bridging deployment and sustainability, public investment and private capital, infrastructure and investable assets. He said technical audits were ongoing and that the east and west super grid would be revisited to build resilience, targeting an increase in wheeling capacity from about 5,000 megawatts currently to 6,500 by the end of this year and 8,000 by the end of next year.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako said the project would sustain renewable energy in health institutions given the unreliability of the grid, while Minister of Education Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa said it would help tertiary institutions sustain power on their campuses.
