Nigeria: Govt to Take Nigerian Universities Off National Grid

The federal government is set to move universities across Nigeria away from reliance on the national electricity grid as part of efforts to address persistent power challenges affecting academic activities.

The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, disclosed this in a recent interview, saying dedicated solar-powered mini-grids would be deployed to provide universities with more reliable electricity.

Alausa said the move was necessary because repeated disruptions to electricity supply had affected teaching, research and other activities within university communities.

He noted that unstable power had particularly created difficulties for scientific research and contributed to a decline in the quality of campus life.

Under the proposed arrangement, universities would have dedicated solar power systems capable of supplying electricity to key facilities, including lecture halls and student accommodation, without depending on the conventional transmission network.

The minister also pointed to the financial pressure electricity costs place on tertiary institutions, saying universities could redirect money currently spent on power bills towards academic development and the provision of essential equipment.

"We are taking our campuses off the national grid with dedicated solar power. You cannot build a modern university system where students cannot read at night, laboratories lose power in the middle of experiments, and hospitals attached to our universities are forced to run on noisy, expensive diesel generators," he said.

Alausa said the proposed shift to captive solar energy would also provide a long-term solution to the high cost of powering university facilities.

"The burden of electricity tariffs has been one of the heaviest strains on university finances. Instead of universities sinking hundreds of millions into electricity bills every single month, funds that should be expanding faculties or buying equipment, we are solving this structurally with clean, captive energy that operates around the clock," he added.

Read the original article on Leadership.