Rural Electrification Must Drive Jobs, Enterprise, Not Just Grid Expansion — Power Minister

The Minister of Power Joseph Tegbe, has declared that rural electrification is no longer about extending wires into communities but about extending opportunity, creating prosperity and enabling enterprise.

He stated this while affirming federal government’s commitment to transforming Nigeria’s rural economy through energy at the Stakeholders’ Engagement Workshop on Productive Use of Energy (PUE) in Abuja.

The event drew government agencies, development partners, financiers, manufacturers, farmers’ associations and members of the diplomatic community to chart a coordinated path for powering agricultural productivity nationwide.

Delivering the keynote address, the minister noted that success can no longer be measured only by megawatts generated or households connected, stressing that electricity becomes truly transformational only when it powers productivity, whether that means a farmer irrigating more land, a rice mill processing more produce, a cold room preserving fish and vegetables, or young entrepreneurs building agro-processing businesses within their communities.

Tegbe identified the Productive Use of Energy agenda as a convergence point for energy, agriculture, industrialization, financial inclusion, food security and job creation, and pointed to the scale of value lost between harvest and market through inadequate cold storage, limited processing capacity and the high cost of energy-intensive equipment.

He assured stakeholders that the business case is compelling across the value chain, offering farmers lower operating costs, financial institutions a new class of bankable assets, manufacturers a growing domestic market and government stronger revenue and rural development outcomes, and urged participants to leave the workshop with greater alignment and confidence in Nigeria’s potential to lead Africa’s productive-use-of-energy market.

In his welcome address, MD/CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Abba Abubakar Aliyu, commended the minister for his energy and drive, and framed the engagement as building a lasting system rather than a one-off project, affirming that small-scale agriculture and MSMEs are the main story of Nigeria’s food system.

He cited REA’s track record, including the Energizing Agriculture Programme’s pipeline of over 120 bankable sites and the Africa Mini-grids Programme, disclosing that the DARES programme has committed 250 million dollars to standalone solar systems, 100 million dollars to solar-as-a-business and 50 million dollars to Productive Use Equipment.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, represented at the event, aligned the Ministry’s priorities with the PUE agenda, while a representative of the ECOWAS Commission situated Nigeria’s efforts within the regional initiative and reaffirmed the Commission’s support for energy-driven agricultural transformation across West Africa.

The workshop marks the first in a planned series of engagements that will progressively address financing design, technology standards and deployment pipelines for productive use equipment. With government, REA, development partners and the private sector now aligned around a common framework, stakeholders expressed confidence that the dialogue will translate into concrete investment, innovation and stronger incomes for Nigeria’s rural economy.