Report: Jeff Bezos, Rockefeller offering $25m credit to mini-grid developers in Nigeria

Report: Jeff Bezos, Rockefeller offering $25m credit to mini-grid developers in Nigeria

  Global Energy
Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), an organisation founded by Bezos Earth
Fund, the Rockefeller Foundation and Ikea Foundation, are piloting a solar
mini-grid programme in Nigeria to address unreliable electricity and boost
productivity.

 

Bezos Earth Fund was founded by Jeff Bezos, a United States
billionaire, and the Rockefeller Foundation was established by the late
American industrialist, John D. Rockefeller, while the Ikea Foundation was
formed by the late Swedish businessman, Ingvar Kamprad.

 

In a report on Monday, Bloomberg said GEAPP, formed in 2021,
has a programme, demand aggregation for renewable technology (DART), which
lowers solar equipment costs by pooling developers’ needs and also offers a $25
million financing facility for equipment imports, repayable in naira.

 

Speaking during an interview at one of the project sites in
Ogun State, Muhammad Wakil, GEAPP’s country delivery lead, said the pooling
arrangement provides savings of up to 30 percent for developers.

 

 “GEAPP provides
grants, loans, and technical assistance to mini-grid developers, taking
advantage of a government rule introduced last year that allows mini-grids to
operate alongside national grids. This programme’s success has led the World
Bank to pledge $130 million for similar facilities,” Wakil said.

 

“The site in Ogun State is a one-megawatt solar mini-grid
built by Darway Coast, a Nigerian mini-grid company. By the end of the year, it
will provide the local community with 24-hour electricity, replacing the eight
hours currently supplied by Ikeja Electric Plc.”

 

The publication also reported that GEAPP helped build the
first interconnected mini-grid in December in Nigeria, adding that two more are
under construction, with funding available for a fourth.

 

The facilities, according to the report, are operated by
private developers and supplement the limited hours of supply from the national
grid to power businesses and homes continuously.

 

‘NIGERIA NEEDS
THOUSANDS OF SIMILAR PROJECTS TO ELIMINATE ENERGY POVERTY’

 

Wakil said thousands of similar projects are needed across
Nigeria to eliminate energy poverty.

 

He explained that, initially, GEAPP aims to build a pilot
project in each of the regions served by Nigeria’s 11 power distribution
companies (DisCos), with a long-term plan to facilitate 10 gigawatts of
mini-grids, however, the programme complements efforts to establish mini-grids
in areas without access to the national power grid.

 

 “We need hundreds or
thousands of these kinds of projects across Nigeria to end energy poverty,”
Wakil said.

 

“We have shown it’s a viable business model.”

 

According to the report, Fatima Haliru, power purchase
manager at Ikeja Electric, said everybody is open to creating energy and
selling to customers based on the provision of the Electricity Act.

 

Haliru said instead of engaging Darway as competitors, “it’s
better to engage them as partners”.

 

Source: Report: Jeff Bezos, Rockefeller offering $25m credit to mini-grid developers in Nigeria

 - NigerianEye
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