Nigeria to spend seized money on rural electrification

Guardian Nigeria

About 45% of Nigerians do not have access to electricity. The government plans to power rural communities with funds recovered from a former oil minister and her associates.

Transcript

00:00The sparks are still flying as ever, but the electricity of Jesse Ene's welding machine

00:07is now generally clean.

00:10This is good for the environment, but for the welder, the benefits for his family are

00:15invaluable.

00:16I've started using solar-powered electricity because of how expensive gas is.

00:23If I had kept on using gas, I wouldn't be able to support my family anymore.

00:29That's why I started using solar-powered electricity, to get some benefits from it.

00:36The whole village is now benefiting from it.

00:39Sabon Gida in southern Nigeria was connected to a solar-powered mini-grid a year ago.

00:47Half of the households and most of the businesses are now supplied with clean, cheap electricity,

00:53practically around the clock.

00:55In the local hospital, Dr. Abel Elisha and Nurse Andat Detao can provide much better

01:01care for their patients now that they have electric light.

01:06Previously, they had to work by flashlight during the hours of darkness.

01:14When the women come to give birth here, it's very difficult for us because we don't get

01:20light.

01:21We are using torch light.

01:23So even giving the injection without light, you will see it's difficult for us.

01:29So with that light, we are enjoying it.

01:31Now that we have the light, what I'm planning is that I want to save money so that I will

01:39get a fridge that I will be storing my vaccines and other drugs that need a certain temperature.

01:53More and more mini-grids are being installed in Nigeria, in part thanks to the falling

01:58costs for solar technology.

02:00The system in Sabon Gida, manufactured by a U.S. company, was co-financed by the World

02:05Bank and the African Development Bank.

02:08There are now six systems here in the country's north-central state of Nassarawa.

02:13Abel Gaya from the Clean Technology Hub thinks small solar power plants are one of the best

02:18ways to supply rural Africa with electricity without fossil fuels.

02:25So there are 600 million Africans without access to electricity, and Nigeria has the

02:31highest rates of this un-electrified population across Africa.

02:38Nigeria is also the largest potential market for mini-grids, and so mini-grids are a key

02:43solution in electrifying at least 30% of the un-electrified population.

02:52This has also been great for John Buhari's business.

02:55He provides a cell phone charging service, and thanks to the cheap electricity, he now

03:01makes more profit because he no longer has to pay for fuel for the generator.

03:05You can see, even the charging, we don't put an increased price on the amount of the

03:14price we are charging people.

03:15It's 15 Naira, and it's because of the solar we have.

03:18As the example of Sabon Gida shows, people are prepared to switch to environmentally

03:23friendly electricity, especially when it's a financially viable option.

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