The estimated 25 million Nigerians that will benefit from the Federal Government’s Solar Home Systems expected to commence this week will be expected to pay about N4, 000 monthly, the Presidency has said.
The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice-President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, disclosed this in a statement. Akande, in the statement, titled: “25m Nigerians to own 5m solar systems at N4, 000 monthly”, was giving further insight into earlier reports that the Federal Government will from next week commence the process of installation of five million systems in underserved and off-grid communities across the country.
Akande explained that beneficiaries will be expected to pay about N4, 000 monthly over a period of three years, saying the solar program, nicknamed ‘Solar Power Naija’, for which installations start in December, is being implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency, (REA).
He added that as indicated in the Economic Sustainability Plan, which is to develop a plan that responds robustly and appropriately to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic amongst other terms of reference, the five million connections initiative is a private sector-led electricity access acceleration scheme to be facilitated by a low-cost loan facility from the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN) and implemented by REA.
According to the statement, a major part of the plan is the installation of solar home systems that targets 5 million households, serving about 25 million individual Nigerians who are currently not connected to the National Grid. The solar manufacturers will be required to set up production facilities in Nigeria and provide the materials required.
It added that the CBN will make available funds to the private companies in the solar power sector involved in the manufacture, assembling installation, servicing of the solar systems, at rates ranging between 5 to 10%.
The earlier report, however, elicited questions from Nigerians who wanted to know the cost of owning the solar system.
