REA restores electricity to Kano community after 16 years of darkness
…Targets 17m households with the installation of 1,350 mini-grids The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has again advanced its goal of
The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) was established under the Electrification Project component of Nigeria's Power Sector Reform Act to extend electricity access to communities outside the reach of the national grid, largely through solar mini-grids and stand-alone systems. Many rural and semi-urban communities across northern Nigeria, including parts of Kano State, have gone years—sometimes decades—without reliable grid power due to vandalised infrastructure, high connection costs, and the limited reach of distribution companies, forcing residents to rely on generators or go without electricity entirely.
The reported commissioning of mini-grid projects in Kano, said to serve over 2,000 households across two communities, forms part of REA's broader push to deploy decentralised renewable energy solutions nationwide, with the agency citing a much larger target of over a thousand mini-grids and millions of households still needing connection. Coverage across outlets agrees on the 16-year power outage being resolved and the mini-grid model used, though details such as project cost, specific community names, funding partners, and implementation timelines have not been uniformly reported.