From David Onuoja, Abuja
The Federal Government has today commissioned a 3MW captive solar hybrid power project at Yakubu Gowon University, Abuja, to strengthen electricity supply for teaching, research, laboratories, digital services and other critical operations of the institution.
The project which was delivered under Phase II of the Energizing Education Programme (EEP), implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency, (REA), through the World Bank-funded Nigeria Electrification Project, NEP.
The university, with a population of almost 40,000 students including over 8,000 resident on campus and more than 3,500 staff, has substantial power needs across its academic, residential and administrative facilities.
Commissioning the facility on Wednesday in Abuja, the Honourable Minister of Power, Joseph O. Tegbe, said the project demonstrated the practical link between Nigeria’s energy transition and human capital development.
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“There is perhaps no better place to demonstrate the practical value of Nigeria’s energy transition than a university. A university brings together everything that a modern energy system is expected to support: learning, research, healthcare, technology, administration and, increasingly, the digital infrastructure through which knowledge is created and shared”, Tegbe said.
The Minister noted that the plant would also provide a more reliable energy base for the university’s core functions, adding that its long-term performance would be the true test of the investment. “The commissioning is not the conclusion of the investment. It is the beginning of its most important phase”, linking the sustainability drive to the recently established Renewable Asset Management Company, RAMCO, created to strengthen the management of renewable assets.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of REA, Abba Aliyu, on his part, said the EEP has evolved beyond infrastructure provision to showing how targeted energy investment can directly support education. “When the Energizing Education Programme was conceived, the ambition was straightforward: to change what reliable electricity could mean for Nigeria’s public universities. Not simply to put solar panels on campuses, but to create the conditions for students to learn, lecturers to teach, researchers to work, laboratories to function and universities to operate with greater certainty,” he said.
According to REA, the programme has so far delivered renewable energy infrastructure to 22 federal universities and three affiliated teaching hospitals, deploying over 100MW of clean energy and impacting more than 600,000 students and 50,000 academic and administrative staff nationwide.
Aliyu said the Agency’s experience at scale has underscored the need to plan for the entire lifecycle of energy assets. “We have become very good at asking, ‘How do we build more?’ We must now become equally rigorous about asking, ‘How do we protect what we have already built? How do we make it perform? And how do we preserve its value?” he said, noting that this thinking, informed the establishment of RAMCO and REA’s push for models that attract private capital while protecting public investment.
Also speaking is the head of the Nigeria Electrification Project, Olufemi Akinyelure, who said the value of the project should be measured by the development opportunities it unlocks. “Government may not be in the business of making profit, but it must always be in the business of making progress,” he said.
For the university Vice-Chancellor, Professor Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, described it as an investment in its academic mission, stressing that dependable power is indispensable for effective teaching, research and digital operations, and assured that the institution would ensure proper utilisation and maintenance.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the project shows the link between energy policy, implementation and tangible benefits for Nigerians, adding that the National Assembly would continue to provide legislative support and oversight. “Sustainability must therefore remain a priority,” he said, emphasising that university ownership and robust arrangements for operation, maintenance and protection of the facility.
Beyond power supply, the project includes a Renewable Energy Workshop and Training Centre to support practical learning and skills development, as well as a female STEM component to give students hands-on exposure to the renewable energy sector. Delivered in collaboration with the Federal Government, REA, NEP, the World Bank, the university and EMONE Energy Solutions, attention will now shift to sustaining its performance and translating improved electricity into better learning outcomes and innovation.
