Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will on Friday commission the Lagos 1.45MW Sura shopping complex Independent Power Project.
The project, which was executed under the Federal Government’s Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI) and implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), aims at supporting rapid deployment of off-grid electricity solutions to MSME’s within economic clusters (such as markets, shopping complexes and agricultural/industrial clusters) through private sector developers.
Speaking in Lagos on Tuesday, Head of operation, Solad Power Holding Plc, the developer of the project, Omotunde Hassan, said the new power plant takes excess capacity power from Lagos Island Independent Power Plant and links with 1,047 shops which have been metered for N50 per kilowatt per month.
He said though there are 1,047 shops in the complex, only 620 of them are currently opening due to inconsistent power supply.
He said the shops have been energized for the past 70 days since the project kicked-off, while over 700 generators have been decommissioned, reducing harmful greenhouse emissions and noise pollution in the area.
President of Sura shop owners, Mrs Bunmi Aina, who described the development as a dream come through, said the shop owners had on several occasions embarked on self-help power projects but due to the huge cost involved the projects had to be jettisoned.
REA’s Director, Promotion Information and Outreach Rural Electrification, Mr Ayang Ogbe, said government’s intention is to empowerment over 200,000 MSMEs and create over 2,500 jobs through the initiative.
He said energizing economies initiative has already launched pilot projects to electrify 50,000 shops in Sabon Gari Market in Kano State and Ariaria Market in Abia State, adding that EEI has another 13 markets in Phase 1 at various stages of development and construction across the country leveraging solar home solutions and gas-to-power.
