The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has credited a coalition of international development partners and industry bodies for helping to shape Nigeria’s emerging clean-energy market, saying their coordinated support has strengthened off-grid coordination, market development and technical collaboration across the sector.
The REA, working with the support and collaboration of its development partners including the UK PACT, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), Beckaphyl, the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association (GOGLA), SNV, Heinrich Böll Stiftung (HBS), and Murty International, launched the Off-Grid Stakeholder Coordination Forum.
According to the forum, the collective engagement of these partners has helped advance coordination, market development, knowledge exchange, technical support and broader stakeholder collaboration within Nigeria’s off-grid energy ecosystem.
The Forum is a strategic platform designed to strengthen coordination, improve alignment and accelerate sustainable growth across Nigeria’s rapidly evolving off-grid and clean energy ecosystem.
The Forum, launched in Abuja under the theme “Repositioning Sector Coordination for Strategic Growth, Partnership and Delivery,” brings together government institutions, state governments, development partners, financiers, private-sector operators, industry associations, civil society organisations and other stakeholders working across Nigeria’s decentralised energy landscape.
The initiative responds to the growing scale and complexity of Nigeria’s off-grid sector, where multiple institutions and organisations are implementing projects and interventions across different communities, often with overlapping mandates, funding streams and development objectives.
Stakeholders at the launch emphasised that stronger coordination is increasingly essential to ensure that investments are complementary, resources are efficiently deployed and underserved communities are reached equitably.
Beyond government, the Forum recognises the critical contribution of development partners and industry organisations in building Nigeria’s clean energy market.
Speaking at the launch, the managing director/chief executive officer of REA, Abba Abubakar Aliyu, underscored the importance of establishing a common coordination and alignment architecture for the sector.
According to Aliyu, “the objective is not to create another layer of bureaucracy, but to provide a practical mechanism through which stakeholders can better understand who is doing what, where interventions are being deployed, what resources are available, and how different initiatives can be strategically aligned”.
He noted that better coordination would help eliminate duplication, improve institutional and operational efficiency, enhance the allocation of scarce resources and ensure that multiple programmes do not inadvertently target the same communities while other underserved locations remain unattended.
The minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, who was represented by the chief of staff, Federal Ministry of Power, Adedoyin Adelabu, assured stakeholders and the general public on the Ministry’s dedication to service and policy guidance.
He explained that fragmentation is the quiet tax every under-coordinated sector pays: in duplicated effort, missed investment opportunities, and slower delivery of power to the Nigerians who need it most.
According to him, ”The Forum is therefore expected to serve as a continuous platform for shared intelligence, joint problem-solving, partnership development and coordinated action, rather than a one-off stakeholder engagement.
The Forum will consequently provide opportunities for stakeholders to identify common challenges, share lessons and data, align priorities and develop practical partnerships capable of moving successful interventions from individual projects to scalable sector-wide solutions.”
The importance of a coordinated approach was also highlighted by stakeholders at the launch.
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