Amid the controversy over power distribution in the Ariaria market in Aba, Abia State, the Managing Director of Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Damilola Ogunbiyi, has disclosed that 4,000 shops in the market will be powered by the end of October.
According to her, the current capacity on ground to commence with is two megawatts, but a total of 9.5MW is expected at the end of the project. The REA boss maintained that with her utmost mandate to create sustainable power supply to people who are not connected and underserved, the step was in the right direction because for a market with great potentials like Ariaria, power should not be a hindrance to their progress.
Commenting on the controversy between her outfit and the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), over power distribution in the market area, Ogunbiyi at the Nigeria Off-Grid Energy and Innovators summit 2018 that held in Lagos explained that “in as much as the project is private sector focused, the DisCos do not have a choice because there is an overriding public interest, even in some universities we are working at, they are not happy.”
Source: The Guardian