Solar Energy Remains Most Economically Viable – REA

The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Abba Aliyu, has described solar energy as the most economically viable model of power.

This was made known by Aliyu while featuring on a Channels Television programme, The morning brief, on Monday, August 25, 2025.

Aliyu, who was answering question on the most appropriate energy mix in the country, noted that they are discussing other models of power like wind, biomass and so on.

The REA boss, however, revealed that the federal government had to suspend action on biomass when they realized that the tariff was way above the allowable limit due to the processing costs involved.

Aliyu pointed out that they are holding discussions on wind power model as they just signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Nigerian Wind Energy Council for small wind infrastructure that are economically viable as well as within allowable range.

Aliyu on the question of energy mix said, ‘’To the second question, the mix, the most economically viable model now is the solar that we have seen. There are others that we are still discussing, wind, biomass. We tried biomass, but when we see the cost of moving the garbage from where they are being dumped to the processing zone and processing it, the tariff was way above the limit that we can allow.

‘’And that is why we are yet to incentivize that. But for the wind, we are discussing, we just last week signed an MOU with the Nigerian Wind Energy Council for us to start looking at small wind infrastructure that are economically viable, that the tariff will be within the allowable range. If we get that, we will start deploying other means of generation.’’

Aliyu had also revealed that some Nigerians living in rural communities enjoy a stable electricity supply and willingly pay for it, even beyond what Band A electricity consumers pay. Band A customer pays N209.50 per kilowatt-hour as tariff.

He said that there are areas where the tariff is between N250 and N280, adding that the electricity tariff paid by rural communities largely depended on the total cost of infrastructure deployed by his agency.

He said, ‘’So there are communities, there are rural areas, rural of the rural, that pay tariff much more than what you are even paying in band A. And they are paying. What do you mean by that? There are areas that the tariff is even close to two hundred and fifty (250), two hundred and eighty (280). And they load with token? Yes, absolutely, token.

They use their mobile phone to pay for the electricity, and they enjoy it. But there are other areas that the tariff is less than what you pay in band A. Like I told you, it’s subjective on the total cost of infrastructure that we deploy within those communities. That is one.’’