Grant payments by the Universal Energy Facility (UEF) will enable solar companies to impact thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises across the country, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said.
Osinbajo’s comments were part of an announcement on Wednesday by UEF – a results-based financing facility managed by Sustainable Energy for All – that it would provide grants to renewable energy firms that applied to have their projects financed as part of the facility’s stand-alone Solar for Productive Use programme in Nigeria.
According to UEF, such companies can now begin construction on their proposed solar projects, all of which are designed to connect businesses and services to a clean, affordable and reliable power source.
It explained that the projects would span most of the states and be completed within the next 12 months.
They are expected to connect approximately 3,500 businesses, markets, shopping malls, cold storage facilities, clinics, schools, and other productive uses of energy, which are uses that support economic activity and community infrastructure.
“The Universal Energy Facility will provide grant payments to enable solar companies to expand their operations to small and medium-sized enterprises across Nigeria, while crowding-in additional private capital,” Osinbajo said.
He added: “Projects supported by the Universal Energy Facility will help grow businesses and create jobs, making them key contributors to our Energy Transition Plan.”
Minister of State for Power, Mr. Goddy Jedi-Agba, described the UEF programme as “a practical demonstration of targeted investment in our power sector and in our overall objective to provide energy access to all Nigerians”.
UEF promised to alleviate the need for businesses and services to rely on expensive, polluting fossil fuel generators as their source of power.
It estimated that approximately 5,400 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year would be saved once all of the proposed projects were implemented. “
“With this programme in Nigeria, the Universal Energy Facility will demonstrate the enabling power that sustainable energy can have on local economic development and climate action,” said Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Sustainable Energy for All.
“Solar projects supported by the facility will give businesses clean and affordable electricity to help them scale up, create jobs, and replace polluting power sources,” he said.
