REA pushes integrated rural energy-agriculture system to transform Nigeria’s food security
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has unveiled plans to build an integrated energy-agriculture ecosystem aimed at transforming Nigeria’s rural economy, saying isolated intervention projects are no longer sufficient to guarantee sustainable food security and economic growth.
Speaking at the Productive Use Equipment (PUE) Alignment Workshop, REA Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, said the agency’s new approach seeks to establish a coordinated system that brings together government institutions, financiers, development partners and the private sector to deliver lasting impact for rural communities.
Aliyu stressed that the initiative marks a shift from standalone projects to an enduring institutional framework capable of supporting smallholder farmers and rural enterprises long after donor-funded programmes have ended.
According to him, while individual farmers and rural businesses may appear insignificant in isolation, their combined output forms the backbone of Nigeria’s agricultural production and food security, making it imperative to create systems that connect fragmented production to markets, finance and reliable energy.
The REA boss highlighted the agency’s achievements under previous interventions, noting that the African Development Bank-funded National Electrification Project disbursed nearly $20 million for productive-use equipment, reaching more than one million Nigerians and supporting the deployment of over 22,000 energy-efficient technologies for agriculture.
He added that the Energizing Agriculture Programme identified more than 120 bankable energy-agriculture sites across the country, while the Africa Minigrids Programme successfully deployed renewable energy mini-grids in 23 rural communities.
Despite these successes, Aliyu acknowledged that stronger collaboration among key institutions would have produced even greater results.
He said integrating financing institutions such as NIRSAL and the Bank of Agriculture, commodity exchanges and private-sector service providers from the planning stage would improve the sustainability, bankability and scalability of future interventions.
“We had the energy. We needed the ecosystem. Today, we are building the ecosystem,” he declared.
Aliyu also revealed that the ongoing Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme has earmarked $400 million for renewable energy deployment, including $250 million for standalone solar systems, $100 million for Solar as a Business initiatives and $50 million specifically for productive-use equipment.
He said the productive-use allocation alone could finance more than 35,000 solar-powered irrigation pumps, 45,000 solar cold storage units or about 100,000 modular rice mills, describing the investments as capable of dramatically reducing post-harvest losses, boosting year-round farming and increasing rural incomes.
“This is not about a programme or a budget line; it is about transformation,” he said.
The REA managing director called on government agencies, development partners and private-sector stakeholders to commit to the series of alignment workshops, which will focus on financing, technology standards, deployment strategies and institutional coordination needed to sustain rural electrification and agricultural productivity nationwide.
