The Presidency has assured that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is committed to ensuring that all higher institutions benefit from a 24-hour power supply to enhance education.
Senior Special Assistant on Students’ Engagement to the President, Comrade Sunday Asefon, provided this assurance during a working visit to the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Abba Abubakar Aliyu, in Abuja.
The Federal Government has spent over N38,965,147 on power generation in several universities in Nigeria as part of the first phase of the Energizing Education Programme (EEP).
The recent increase in electricity tariffs has impacted public universities, with some paying between N150 million and N300 million monthly for electricity bills.
To address this, the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Power and the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), initiated the Energizing Education Programme (EEP) to provide reliable power via solar hybrid power plants. The programme initially targets 37 federal universities and 7 affiliated university teaching hospitals.
A document from the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) indicates that, due to budgetary constraints, the EEP is being implemented in phases. The first phase, costing over N38 billion, has been completed, and the solar hybrid power plants have been handed over to the beneficiary institutions. According to REA, the second phase, which is currently in the pre-commissioning stage, will be officially launched in the fourth quarter of 2024, while the third phase, now under construction, is expected to be commissioned by the second quarter of 2025.