20100602
Africa Good News

The World Bank has said it is committing over $200 million towards the implementation of renewable energy projects in Nigeria towards enhancing access and rural electrification as part of its commitment to the nation's power sector.

The Bank's Country Director, Mr. Onno Ruhl, who disclosed this at a Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy workshop organized by the Ministry of Power and the World Bank, in Abuja, noted that all problems in the Nigerian electricity sector can not be solved by conventional sources or grid extensions.

According to Ruhl, the World Bank is committed to engaging the Nigerian governments at both Federal and state levels towards finding ways to bring electricity to "the many Nigerians who cannot be talking about having no light because they don't even have connections to their homes."

"We want to initiate technologies that would bring faster solutions; it would involve a menu of solutions for Nigeria's power problem, because one of the problems that we have in Nigeria is that so much depends on this option of generating electricity exclusively from gas-powered thermal plants and hydro-generated power," he stated.