Off-grid Programme:  Renewables to Cut N3.5tn Post-harvest Losses

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Nigeria Off-grid Market Acceleration Programme (NOMAP), a donor-funded scheme, focused on accelerating off-grid energy access in the country, has said it is accelerating its renewables solutions to cut the country’s N3.5 trillion post-harvest losses.

The conveners of the group made the disclosure in Abuja at a high-level stakeholders event to discuss how to finance off-grid renewable energy solutions targeted at productive use for rural communities and marginalised groups.

The event brought together relevant government agencies, donor partners, development finance institutions, commercial banks, off-grid energy companies among others.

“Mini-grids in Nigeria continue to struggle with capacity utilisation and commercial viability constraints. Incidentally, most mini-grids operate in agrarian communities where post-harvest losses are significantly high because of limited options for storage and processing.

“Post-harvest losses currently cost the country N3.5 trillion ($8 billion) annually. While efforts are being made to stimulate demand for electricity in communities powered by mini-grids, developers are beginning to identify opportunities where electricity can be used for value addition especially in the agro value chain,” an update on the programme indicated.

In his welcome remarks, the Programme Director, NOMAP, Adedotun Eyinade, said the stakeholders’ event was inspired by the need to build on the collective progress made in the sector and to foster learning and collaboration.

“We are grateful to be complimenting the work of the government, donor organisations, mini-grid developers, solar home system companies and many other stakeholders too numerous to mention.

“As a market accelerator, we pay a great deal of attention to engaging all our stakeholders as a strategy to deepening our understanding of issues and how that can help design human centred solutions to challenges facing the sector,” he said.

The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Ahmad Salihijo, who was represented by his Special Adviser, Barbara Izilein, said the productive use of energy would ensure energy access is not only available, but utilised to its full potential.

“By harnessing energy to drive productive activities, we can create jobs, increase incomes, and improve the living standards of millions of Nigerians where these solutions are being deployed,” she said.

The NOMAP was established in 2018 through a partnership between the Shell Foundation, the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and USAID Power Africa under their Scaling Off-grid Energy Grand Challenge for Development (SOGE) partnership.

Programme Manager, Chibuikem Agbaebu, in his remarks, said NOMAP was being managed by a team of professionals with experience across key areas of the off-grid energy sector including finance, business, policy regulation, and development economics.

According to him, the programme provides data, analysis, intelligence, and insight to off-grid energy companies, development partners, government, and other stakeholders.

He explained that it also engaged and supported the public to create effective policies and a conducive enabling environment to increase off-grid energy uptake as well as undertaking direct interventions to prove concepts that can reduce the off-grid energy market barriers and accelerate energy access.

“Through these interventions, NOMAP has been to identify over 15,000 communities viable for mini-grid and solar home systems (SHS) deployment across 30 states in Nigeria.

“It has also collected granular data on over 150 viable mini-grid communities to support mini-grid development. These sites are currently in use by the Rural Electrification Agency with mini-grid companies bidding to develop mini-grids there under the Minimum Subsidy Component of the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP).

“It has also facilitated the sale of over 8,550 SHS products through its Single Point of Integration (SPOI) platform, and the processing of about 150,000 transactions valued at N370 million as at the end of March 2023,”  Agbaebu said.

Besides, he noted that this was in addition to providing $240,000 in financing to three mini-grid developers for the purchase of equipment for productive use for community residents across 18 mini-grid communities.