Nigeria’s rural telecommunications base stations consume more than 40 million litres of diesel monthly, highlighting the high cost of powering network infrastructure in underserved communities, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has said.
Dr Abba Aliyu, represented by Engr. Umaru A. Umaru disclosed this during Rural Connectivity Summit 2.0.
“Across the digital sector, when you are talking about rural base stations and rural connectivity, we have about over 11,000 rural base stations. And it’s estimated that over 40 million litres of diesel are consumed every month on powering a lot of these rural base stations,” he said.
Umaru said reliable electricity was critical to expanding rural connectivity, adding that the REA was working with the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to explore ways of integrating electricity infrastructure with telecommunications networks.
“So we all agree that reliable power is the enabling infrastructure for rural connectivity,” he said.
He highlighted the Nigeria Electrification Project, under which about 380 grant agreements were signed with developers, more than 150 projects were commissioned, and approximately 1.45 million solar systems were deployed.
According to him, the success of the programme informed the development of another electricity access initiative, which aims to deploy 1,350 mini-grids, including 250 interconnected mini-grids, to provide new electricity access to 17.5 million Nigerians.
Umaru also cited the National Electricity Strategy and Implementation Plan, which targets universal electricity access by 2030 and estimates that about $23 billion in investment would be required to connect 22 million households.
He said the REA-NCC collaboration had progressed from mapping rural mini-grids and telecommunications base stations to evaluating business models and planning pilot projects.
“The joint committee, three sub-committees. We’ve done the cross-spatial overlay of mini-grids and rural BTS. Three business models have already been evaluated, recommended. We’ve done the signing of the MOU,” he said.
He added that the next phase would involve joint site audits, pilot deployments and engagement with mobile network operators, tower companies and mini-grid developers to validate the proposed models using operational data.
Umaru said the initiative would measure success through improved network coverage, reliability, cleaner energy, reduced diesel consumption, community electricity access and commercial performance.