LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria is moving to integrate its electricity infrastructure with telecommunications networks to expand digital access, improve service reliability and extend connectivity to underserved rural communities.
The initiative seeks to leverage the country’s power infrastructure to support telecommunications expansion while reducing the heavy reliance on diesel generators to power rural base stations, reports The Guardian.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Abba Aliyu, disclosed this at the second edition of the Rural Connectivity Summit (RuralConnect 2.0), organised by Business Metrics Limited in Lagos on Wednesday.
The summit, themed “Rural Inclusion at Scale: Connecting the Next 25 Million Users for Frontier Market Growth,” focused on expanding digital access and unlocking economic opportunities in underserved communities.
Aliyu disclosed that Nigeria has more than 11,000 rural telecommunications base stations, with an estimated 40 million litres of diesel consumed monthly to power a significant proportion of them.
“Across the digital sector, when you are talking about rural base stations and rural connectivity, we have over 11,000 rural base stations. And it’s estimated that over 40 million litres of diesel are consumed every month to power a lot of these rural base stations,” he said.
Represented by the agency’s Executive Director, Technical Services Directorate, Umar Umar, the REA chief executive described reliable electricity as “the enabling infrastructure for rural connectivity.”
He said the REA and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) were working towards integrating electricity infrastructure with telecommunications networks to address persistent connectivity challenges in rural areas.
According to him, the collaboration has advanced from mapping rural mini-grids and telecommunications base stations to evaluating viable business models and preparing pilot projects involving telecommunications operators, tower companies and mini-grid developers.
Aliyu also highlighted the REA’s existing interventions under the Nigeria Electrification Project, disclosing that approximately 380 grant agreements had been signed, more than 150 hybrid solar mini-grids commissioned and about 1.45 million solar home systems deployed.
The proposed integration is expected to strengthen the electricity supply supporting rural telecommunications infrastructure, potentially reducing operating costs and improving the reliability of digital services in communities where poor connectivity continues to constrain economic activities.
