Presenter : Engr. Yusuf Mohammad Ganda

1. The Role of Renewable Energy in Improving
Energy Access to Rural Areas
By
Engr. Yusuf Mohammad Ganda,

2.  Energy access is a key to development and no country
has managed poverty alleviation without increasing its
energy access.
 Nigeria has an installed generating capacity of about
6000MW, with only about 40% of the population having
access to grid. More than 80% of rural areas have no
access to Electricity.
 The supply of electricity in the country is sparse and
inadequate; the spread favours the urban areas with
about 80% accessibility by households.
 It is therefore essential to access the alternatives that
exist for supplying electricity, in a sustainable manner, to
rural households in order to meet their energy
requirements. Potentially, one of such options is
renewable energy.

3. Access to Energy, especially for
rural communities, represents a
central pillar of development.
It is estimated that around 1.3
billion people in the world have no
reliable access to electricity.
Nigeria, with 170 million population
has 40% and about 10% access to
electricity and renewable energy,
respectively.

4.  Renewable energy in rural areas of developing
countries has made significant inroads for
household lighting and entertainment.
 The major emerging productive uses of
renewable energy in the rural areas include the
following:
 Rural electrification
 Rural water projects
 Battery charging
 Health care delivery
 Agriculture
 Education
 Cottage industry
 Community Services
 Domestic Uses

5. Improving renewable energy access in the
rural areas has the capacity to put to stop, the
massive migration of people from rural places
to the urban centres. The following are the
benefits:
Improving Standard of Living
Women Empowerment
Employment Generation
Overall Developmental Effect
Poverty Reduction

6.  Specific policy, regulatory frameworks, financing
and investment, technological, public awareness,
quality/standards, poor resource database and
intermittent resource availability, confront the
access to renewable energy in Nigeria.
 Policy and regulatory barriers
 Financing and Investment barriers
 Technological Barrier
 Public awareness
 Standards and quality control
 Inadequate resource assessment
 Intermittency of resource availability

7. Solar Photovoltaic
Wind Energy
Solar thermal
Bio-mass
Small Hydro
Clean cooking stoves

13. In order to achieve a significant energy access in the
rural areas, the following are being recommended:
 The Federal Government should take renewable
energy more serious through improved budgetary
allocations to the sector as well as adopt all policy
drafts, including but not limited to Renewable Energy
Master Plan prepared by the Energy Commission of
Nigeria.
 The National Assembly should as a matter of urgency
legislate on all renewable energy policy drafts
submitted to them.
 Governments at State and Local levels should
integrate the use of renewable energy for rural
development.
 Establishment of a Trust Fund that would be
committed to the promotion of renewable energy
projects in the rural areas of the country.

14.  Rural areas in Nigeria are places where many
raw materials and agricultural activities thrive and
the need to develop such areas cannot be over
emphasized.
 This is because underdevelopment of these
areas has had negative impact on the economy
and industrial growth because of rural-urban
migration. This in turn, has contributed to
increased crime in the urban centres as well as
overstretching of available facilities there.
 As a result, government must wake up to halt this
negative effect on its economy. This can be
achieved with the use of renewable energy
technologies in order to generate employment.