Picture of solar panel used for illustration
Nigerian universities grappling with chronic power outages are set to benefit from a proposed $500m solar power investment. The announcement was made at the launch of the Tinubu Light Initiative organised by the National Board for Technology Incubation, an agency under the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, on Thursday in Abuja.
The Chief Executive Officer of renewable energy firm Gigawatt Global, Yosef Abramowitz, who announced the initiative, said the company would provide up to $500m in project financing, covering as much as 90 per cent of the cost of university-based solar projects, subject to internationally bankable power purchase agreements and agreed project milestones.
“We’re honoured to be able to present up to $500 million in project finance. That will represent 90 per cent financing for solar power plants at universities, which will also anchor power supply to the rural communities surrounding them.”
He noted that many Nigerian universities currently depend on costly diesel-powered generators, leaving campuses with electricity for only a few hours daily. “How do you run a university in three, four or five hours? How do you not have internet because you don’t have electricity?”
