…Fashola says more rural communities to get access to electricity
OpeOluwani Akintayo
14 December 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The rural electrification plan has enabled the Federal government to access about 200 million dollars to run a pilot in 70 communities in five states of the federation, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has said.
The minister made the remark when he received in audience a delegation of the village head of Gora community in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa led by Hajia Kareen Fatimah Mohammed in his office.
He said the data of communities yet to access electricity would be gathered so as to extend power to them.
The minister said, “One of the reasons I have you here is that you are the faces of electricity under this administration: Dozen communities are having access to electricity whether on mini-grid or off grid like Gora community and this demonstrates that the government is working”.
He also said that young Nigerians under 40 years of age presently constitute the membership of the Board of the Nigeria Rural Electrification Agency (NREA), including the Managing Director, Mrs. Damilola Ogunbiyi.
Fashola said that apart from providing electricity to the community, they are also connected to roads, rail, and bridges, maintaining that “what is good for the people in the cities, must be good for people in the rural communities”. He pointed out that the rural and farming communities are “the most critical pillars of diversity of Nigerian government, being treasures store of food and construction materials.”
