Project
strengthens electricity supply for nearly 40,000 students and more than 3,500
staff
ABUJA,
16 September 2026 –
The
Federal Government has commissioned a 3MW captive solar hybrid power project at
Yakubu Gowon University, Abuja, strengthening electricity supply for teaching,
research, laboratories, digital services and other critical university
operations.
The
project was delivered under Phase II of the Energizing Education Programme
(EEP), implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) through the World
Bank-funded Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP).
With
almost 40,000 students, including more than 8,000 living on campus, and over
3,500 staff, the university has substantial electricity requirements across its
academic, residential and administrative facilities.
Commissioning
the facility on Wednesday, the Honourable Minister of Power, Joseph O. Tegbe,
said the investment demonstrated the practical connection between Nigeria’s
energy transition and human capital development.
“There
is perhaps no better place to demonstrate the practical value of Nigeria’s
energy transition than a university,” Tegbe said. “A university brings together
everything that a modern energy system is expected to support: learning,
research, healthcare, technology, administration and, increasingly, the digital
infrastructure through which knowledge is created and shared.”
The
Minister said the facility would provide a more reliable energy base for
teaching and research, while stressing that its long-term performance would be
the real measure of the investment.
“The
commissioning is not the conclusion of the investment. It is the beginning of
its most important phase,” he said.
Tegbe
linked this focus on sustainability to the recently established Renewable Asset
Management Company (RAMCO), which is intended to strengthen the long-term
management and performance of renewable energy assets.
Managing
Director/CEO of REA, Abba Aliyu, said the Energizing Education Programme had
grown beyond providing electricity infrastructure to demonstrating how energy
investment can support education and human capital development.
“When
the Energizing Education Programme was conceived, the ambition was
straightforward: to change what reliable electricity could mean for Nigeria’s
public universities. Not simply to put solar panels on campuses, but to create
the conditions for students to learn, lecturers to teach, researchers to work,
laboratories to function and universities to operate with greater certainty,”
Aliyu said.
Across
the programme, REA said renewable energy infrastructure has been delivered to
22 federal universities and three affiliated teaching hospitals, with more than
100MW of clean energy deployed and over 600,000 students and 50,000 academic
and administrative staff impacted nationwide.
Aliyu
said REA’s experience implementing projects at this scale had also reinforced
the importance of planning for the entire life of an energy asset, from
construction and commissioning to operation, maintenance and long-term
performance.
“We
have become very good at asking, ‘How do we build more?’ We must now become
equally rigorous about asking, ‘How do we protect what we have already built?
How do we make it perform? And how do we preserve its value?’” he said.
He
said this experience contributed to the thinking behind RAMCO and would inform
REA’s continuing efforts to develop models that attract private capital, expand
electricity access and protect public investment.
Head
of the Nigeria Electrification Project, Olufemi Akinyelure, said the
significance of the project should be measured by the wider development
opportunities reliable electricity creates.
“Government
may not be in the business of making profit, but it must always be in the
business of making progress. And perhaps no public investment yields a greater
return than investment in education because when we power a university, we do
not merely light buildings; we illuminate minds, enable innovation and
strengthen the future of our nation,” Akinyelure said.
Vice-Chancellor
of Yakubu Gowon University, Professor Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, described the
project as an investment in the university’s academic mission.
“A
university such as ours cannot teach effectively, conduct meaningful research,
operate its laboratories, sustain digital services or even provide the
conducive environment required for learning and innovation without dependable
power supply,” Fawehinmi said.
He
said the project was helping strengthen electricity supply for a rapidly
growing institution and assured partners that the university would ensure the
facility was properly utilised and maintained.
Chairman
of the Senate Committee on Power, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said the project
demonstrated the connection between energy policy, effective implementation and
tangible improvements in the lives of Nigerians.
He
said the legislature would continue to provide the legislative environment and
oversight required to support power-sector investment, strengthen
accountability and ensure that projects deliver sustainable benefits.
“Sustainability
must therefore remain a priority,” Abaribe said, stressing the importance of
university ownership and appropriate arrangements for the operation,
maintenance and protection of the facility throughout its useful life.
Beyond
electricity supply, the project includes a Renewable Energy Workshop and
Training Centre to support practical learning and skills development in
renewable energy technologies. The EEP also incorporates a female STEM
component that provides students with practical exposure to renewable energy
and opportunities within the sector.
The
Yakubu Gowon University project was delivered through collaboration between the
Federal Government, REA, the Nigeria Electrification Project, the World Bank,
the university and EMONE Energy Solutions.
With
the facility now commissioned, attention shifts to ensuring its long-term
performance and translating more reliable electricity into better learning
conditions, stronger research and greater opportunities for innovation.
