Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and most populous nation, has long suffered from chronic power shortages, but a new global initiative could offer a promising solution.
The Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), backed by the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bezos Earth Fund, and the IKEA Foundation, will make significant investments in Nigeria’s energy sector, according to a recent report from Bloomberg. The initiative focuses on the deployment of solar mini-grids, with the aim of alleviating the country’s longstanding power shortages.
The pilot phase of this initiative has already been successful. In December 2021, GEAPP launched the first interconnected solar power mini-grid designed to provide more reliable power supply by supplementing Nigeria’s unstable national power grid. I raised it. These distributed energy systems use solar power to generate electricity locally, allowing businesses and homes to continue operating even during frequent power outages.
The Alliance is currently expanding its efforts. Two more mini-grids are under construction, and funding has been secured for a fourth, Bloomberg reports. The goal is to scale these projects across the country and provide a viable alternative to Nigeria’s overloaded national power grid.
Underscoring the importance of these projects, GEAPP Country Implementation Director Muhammad Wakil said, “We need hundreds and thousands of projects of this kind across Nigeria to end energy poverty. We have proven that it is a viable business model,” Wakil told Bloomberg from one of the project sites in Ogun State.
Nigeria’s power crisis is deep and multifaceted. Despite its rich natural energy resources, the country’s national electricity grid currently supplies only about 4,000 megawatts, an insufficient amount for a population of 230 million people. By comparison, South Africa, which has only a quarter of Nigeria’s population, generates six times as much electricity. As a result, Nigeria has the world’s largest population without access to electricity, approximately 86 million people, according to statistics from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the United Nations (UN).
The vulnerabilities of Nigeria’s power infrastructure have become clear in recent weeks. In just one week, the nation’s power grid collapsed three times, leaving millions without power. Bloomberg highlights that the main cause of grid instability is dependence on a small number of power plants, with only 9 out of 22 providing 80% of electricity generation. There is. This over-reliance on a small number of power plants, coupled with inefficiencies in energy distribution, highlights the urgent need for decentralized solutions like solar mini-grids.
In addition to mini-grid deployments, GEAPP is also addressing financial barriers to renewable energy development through its Demand Aggregation for Renewable Technologies (DART) program. The DART program pools the needs of multiple developers to negotiate better prices for solar power equipment, allowing developers to repay the loan in Nigerian Naira while purchasing the equipment when the project begins to generate revenue. It operates a $25 million loan facility that allows imports in US dollars. This financial model aims to make renewable energy projects more viable and scalable.
The success of this initiative has attracted worldwide attention. The World Bank recognized the potential of the GEAPP model and committed US$130 million to fund similar solar mini-grid projects across Nigeria. This influx of capital could significantly accelerate the deployment of decentralized energy systems and bring much-needed relief to Nigeria’s overburdened national grid.
GEAPP aims to tackle Nigeria’s persistent power crisis by leveraging renewable energy and innovative financial strategies. While the country continues to suffer from an aging power grid and unreliable power plants, distributed solar power mini-grids could provide sustainable benefits to millions of Nigerians while reducing Nigeria’s dependence on fossil fuels. It has the potential to provide the stability and scalability needed to deliver as much power as possible. If successful, this model could serve as a blueprint for all of Africa and other energy-poor countries.
