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The Rural Electrification Agency says overlapping electricity projects by government institutions are creating a need for stronger sector-wide coordination.
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REA wants states, development partners and private operators integrated into a unified data and planning framework to prevent duplication.
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The Federal Government plans an Off-Grid Coordination Secretariat as Nigeria targets wider renewable-energy access and 17 million additional connections.
September 29, (THEWILL) – The Rural Electrification Agency has called for stronger coordination among government agencies, state governments, development partners, private operators and other stakeholders to prevent duplication and accelerate electricity access across Nigeria.
The Managing Director of the REA, Dr Abubakar Aliyu, made the call on Monday at the official relaunch of the Off-Grid Stakeholder Coordination and Partnership Forum in Abuja.
Aliyu said better coordination was necessary to ensure limited resources were deployed where they would have the greatest impact, particularly as funding for electricity projects continues to tighten.
He said an analysis of the 2024 and 2025 Federal Government budgets using artificial intelligence showed that several government institutions were implementing power-related projects.
Some of the institutions, he noted, were not traditionally viewed as major players in the power sector, highlighting the extent of fragmentation across government interventions.
“If we continue to work the way we currently do without bringing the states into this conversation and coordination, I can tell you that we will simply be planning to fail,” Aliyu said.
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REA calls for centralised project data
Aliyu said the REA had itself encountered instances where projects implemented under different programmes overlapped at the same locations.
He said such duplication reduced the efficiency of available funding and made it more difficult to identify communities still requiring electricity interventions.
The REA boss called for a centralised platform containing sector data that would allow stakeholders to identify existing projects, coordinate new interventions and direct resources towards underserved areas.
He said sharing reliable data would also improve planning and help stakeholders determine where additional investment was required rather than replicating projects that were already underway.
The Minister of Power, Chief Joseph Tegbe, represented by his Chief of Staff, Doyin Adelabu, also identified fragmentation as a major obstacle to effective electricity delivery.
“Fragmentation is the quiet tax every under-coordinated sector pays: in duplicated effort, missed investment opportunities, and slower delivery of power to the Nigerians who need it most,” Tegbe said.
He said the Federal Government was establishing a standing Off-Grid Coordination Secretariat to track commitments and risks, convene issue-based working groups and generate shared market intelligence.
Government targets wider off-grid access
Tegbe called on development partners, financiers, private operators, state governments and civil society organisations to nominate focal points, share data and commitments, and participate in the working groups.
The Federal Ministry of Power, he said, would continue to provide policy direction through the National Electrification Strategy and Implementation Plan while supporting the development of state electricity markets under the Electricity Act.
Earlier, the Executive Director of the Rural Electrification Fund, Doris Uboh-Ogunkoya, said coordination should become a continuous function rather than an activity limited to periodic meetings.
She said the new coordination secretariat would help stakeholders identify gaps, address bottlenecks and track commitments between meetings.
The Heinrich Böll Stiftung Nigeria representative, Ikenna-Donald Ofoegbu, meanwhile, urged stakeholders to look beyond the number of electricity connections delivered when assessing the success of off-grid interventions.
He called for greater attention to productive use of electricity, innovative financing, sustainability and local capacity development, arguing that the sector must move from individual projects towards a coordinated national ecosystem.
The forum, which began as a donor roundtable in April 2017, is being relaunched under a new coordination framework.
The Federal Government said more than 7.5 million Nigerians had gained electricity access through more than 200 solar hybrid mini-grids and about 1.8 million solar home system connections.
The Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-Up programme is targeting an additional 17 million Nigerians and about 465 megawatts of renewable energy capacity.
Nigeria is also participating in the broader Mission 300 initiative, which aims to connect 300 million Africans to electricity by 2030.
Ogochukwu Onwaeze is a writer specializing in business and economic journalism. At THEWILL News Media, she translates market trends, financial developments, and policy shifts into clear and engaging stories.
