Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu yesterday said average cost of electricity may reduce as ongoing efforts to improve generation and distribution of power take firm root.
He made this known in Abuja when Executive Secretary, National Lottery Trust Fund, Mr. Tosin Adeyanju and his management team visited him.
Adelabu said while it is noteworthy that the price of electricity is still the cheapest in Nigeria compared to several other African nations such as Togo, Mali and Niger Republic, there is a possibility of further reduction going forward.
He acknowledged that the low level of income in Nigeria makes the current electricity cost to look high to consumers.
He however noted that it is still far cheaper to use electricity than to run generators, using petrol or diesel, going by the prices of those commodities.
The Lottery Fund Executive Secretary, explained that as part of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, the agency is working to get the youths, particularly in the rural areas, to be productive by training them on how to assemble one kilowatt of solar energy.
“We have come to you to seek partnership with you on how we can train our rural people, particularly the youths, on how they can assemble one kilowatt of solar energy. This will help a long way in addressing youth restiveness by creating employment for them, particularly those who have acquired skills such as hair dressing, vulcanizing, welding and so on like that.
“This is part of our effort to help President Tinubu to achieve his objective of addressing the challenges of unemployment among the rural people and the youths in general. We want to carry this out in all the local government areas of the country and since we have seeing your commitment in this area of power supply, we have decided to approach your ministry for partnership to achieve this”, Adeyanju said.
Adelabu expressed the readiness of the ministry and its relevant agencies to collaborate and work with Trust Fund to achieve the objective.
He said the renewable power project of the ministry was established to address the areas of the country that the grid does not cover.
“We will be very happy to work and partner with you on this project. We have agencies that are driving this renewable power project, using solar, wind and other alternative sources of power supply where the grid cannot reach. Such agency is our Rural Electricity Agency (REA) and they will be of great value to you in this project.
“All over the world today, we are faced with two basic issues and these are food and energy securities. We can see that the cost of gas is going up globally due partly to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“However, we must be committed to providing electricity to our rural people, particularly the youths. We can see that even those of them who have learnt skills have abandoned those skills and are now riding okada for quick money.
“President Tinubu is committed to the transformation of Nigeria and youths and rural development are of his great concern. If Nigerians are patience, they will realise that the government means well for them.
“We are happy with this effort and will be very willing to work and collaborate with you to achieve it”, Adelabu said.