The Federal Government has announced plans to introduce electricity tariffs for renewable energy assets deployed to 25 federal universities and teaching hospitals across Nigeria.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja during the unveiling of the Renewable Asset Management Company, RAMCO, a new initiative designed to support the long-term management and sustainability of government-funded renewable energy projects.
Tegbe said the government could no longer continue providing electricity from the renewable energy facilities without a mechanism to fund their maintenance and continued operation.
According to him, beneficiary institutions that have enjoyed electricity from the projects would now be required to pay for the power they consume.
“It is a new dawn. We are very good at building public assets but poor at sustaining them. RAMCO offers a different model to renewable energy. Nigeria has lived too long with embarrassing electricity,” the minister said.
Tegbe recalled that some universities had approached him to express appreciation after receiving free electricity from the renewable energy projects for about two years.
“Some universities came to me on a courtesy visit to thank me after using free light for two years. I told them, thank you; the pro bono is over. We are coming to commission, and you will pay tariff. The same thing with teaching hospitals,” he said.
The minister said the introduction of tariffs was necessary to ensure that the renewable energy infrastructure remained operational after the government had invested in building the assets.
The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, REA, Abba Aliyu, also backed the plan, saying the government needed a sustainable financial structure to protect its investment in renewable energy projects.
Aliyu said the Federal Government, through the REA, had deployed 82 megawatts of solar-hybrid generation across 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals since 2017 under the Energising Education Programme.
He said the projects had provided renewable electricity to public institutions, but their long-term sustainability required beneficiary institutions to contribute towards the cost of maintaining the infrastructure.
“Government has funded this asset. REA has built them. Beneficiary institutions must contribute to sustaining them by paying for the electricity they consume,” Aliyu said.
The REA boss said the new asset management structure would help ensure that the government would not have to repeatedly return to the Treasury whenever major components of the renewable energy systems require replacement or maintenance.
The institutions benefiting from the Federal Government’s renewable energy deployment include Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; and the Federal University, Wukari, Taraba State, as well as three teaching hospitals.
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, and the Minister of State for Health, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, were among government officials present at the RAMCO unveiling in Abuja.
The introduction of the tariffs marks a shift from the government’s initial approach of providing free electricity from the projects towards a sustainability model under which beneficiary institutions are expected to contribute to the cost of operating and maintaining the renewable energy assets.
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