FG Moves to Optimise Assets in Renewable Sector, Floats New Company

• Tegbe, Alausa, Oyedele, Salako pledge support, initiative to boost education, health 

•REA: 82MW solar hybrid assets deployed in varsities, about N263bn spent 

•MOFI says new model will help unlock value from public assets 

•Fayose deplores citizens’ attitude to govt infrastructure

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The federal government yesterday launched the Renewable Asset Management Company (RAMCO), a new platform designed to professionally manage, optimise and sustain renewable energy assets deployed with public funds across the country.

Speaking at the official launch in Abuja, the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said RAMCO would introduce a new model of sustainability and measurable performance into the management of renewable energy infrastructure, with plans to extend the approach to the wider power sector.

He added that the company would create a bridge between infrastructure deployment and sustainability, public investment and private capital, as well as infrastructure and investable assets.

Stressing that there are high expectations from RAMCO, Tegbe stressed that partner capital has already been committed to renewable energy infrastructure, with significant investment still being planned, arguing that the quantum of investment imposes a corresponding duty of performance.

“RAMCO must, therefore, preserve asset value; improve uptime and availability; establish transparent performance benchmarks; enforce credible maintenance and replacement regimes; strengthen accountability for operators; and, where appropriate, use professionally managed asset portfolios to crowd in further private and institutional capital,” he explained.

Tegbe stated that the RAMCO example will be replicated in the traditional grid system, with an audit to be conducted, stressing that the exercise would determine the condition of critical assets, including insulators, conductors, relays and transmission towers, with some equipment having been in service for as long as 42 years.

“We’re currently enumerating all the grid assets we have across the country,” Tegbe said, noting that the government intended to put public assets on stronger balance sheets that could be leveraged to mobilise funding without necessarily selling them.

He said the federal government was also working to optimise stranded and idle power by linking available assets to industrial clusters, economic corridors and areas with demand.

Tegbe said the government was targeting an increase in electricity generation to 6,500MW and subsequently 8,000MW, while stressing that the ultimate objective was to use electricity to drive manufacturing, digital infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

In his remarks, the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the establishment of RAMCO was critical to protecting the huge investment already made in renewable energy infrastructure serving tertiary institutions.

He said Phase I and Phase II of the Energising Education Programme (EEP) covered 15 sites with a combined installed capacity of about 70MW, stressing that the projects had transformed electricity supply in beneficiary institutions.

Alausa said reliable electricity was essential for teaching, research, laboratories, digital learning and innovation, but warned that the infrastructure would deteriorate without professional asset management, preventive maintenance and timely replacement of components.

He urged RAMCO to establish high standards of transparency, technical excellence and service delivery, saying its success should ultimately be measured by the reliability, availability, longevity and impact of the assets under its management.

In his intervention, the Minister of State for Health, Dr Iziaq Salako, said the initiative was particularly important to the health sector, where electricity was a critical component of medical care rather than an amenity.

Salako said between 60 and 70 per cent of primary healthcare centres in Nigeria experience frequent power outages or have no electricity, while about 40 per cent of functional primary healthcare centres have no electricity assets.

He added that teaching hospitals requiring megawatts of electricity to operate optimally receive roughly five hours of grid supply daily and can spend between 40 and 50 per cent of their operating expenses on energy, much of it on diesel.

The minister pointed out that  the government had set a target of ensuring that at least 30 per cent of health facilities in Nigeria had steady power supply by the end of 2027.

In his remarks, the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Dr Abba Aliyu, disclosed that the agency had deployed 82MW of solar hybrid generation since 2017 under the Energising Education Programme, while another 150MW was either under construction or in the pipeline.

However, he revealed that an assessment of seven of the first projects showed that only three were in good or usable condition.

Aliyu said the assessment demonstrated the need for a dedicated institution to manage assets after commissioning, adding that RAMCO was intended to ensure that maintenance, revenue collection and replacement costs were built into the economic life of the assets.

He said the company would also work towards aggregating professionally managed renewable assets to attract private capital and support domestic manufacturing.

“Since 2017, through the Energising Education Programme, the Rural Electrification Agency has deployed 82 megawatts of solar-hybrid generation across 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals, representing approximately N263 billion in investment by the federal government, the World Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

“These are not projections. These are assets already built. And more than 150 megawatts is either under construction or in the pipeline…,” he emphasised.

Also, the Chairman of the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Dr Shamsudeen Usman, said RAMCO was part of a broader effort to correct Nigeria’s long-standing failure to maintain public infrastructure after commissioning.

Usman recalled that a previous assessment of federal government projects across the six geopolitical zones had revealed widespread deterioration and abandonment of public assets.

He said the federal government has now developed a national assets register covering verified federal government projects and assets, stressing that proper asset management must begin with knowing what the government owns.

Besides, the Managing Director of MOFI, Dr Armstrong Takang, said RAMCO marked a major turning point in the management of public assets, noting that Nigeria had spent billions of dollars on infrastructure that subsequently failed to deliver the value for which it was established.

Takang said RAMCO fell within MOFI’s three core mandates of establishing what the government owns, professionalising the management of government-owned entities and mobilising capital at scale.

For his part, the Managing Director of Infrastructure Corporation of Nigeria (InfraCorp), Dr Lazarus Angbazo, said infrastructure only creates value when it continues to work after commissioning.

He said RAMCO had been created to address the often-neglected second life of infrastructure, covering maintenance, monitoring, optimisation, renewal, revenue assurance and rehabilitation of underperforming assets.

Angbazo said RAMCO would provide an opportunity for private sector participation across renewable energy services, operations and maintenance, metering, digital monitoring, engineering, manufacturing, insurance and financing.

He said the model could eventually unlock portfolio financing, credit enhancement and long-term institutional capital for renewable energy infrastructure.

The Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Tanimu Yakubu, said RAMCO will extend the working lives of renewable energy assets, reduce replacement expenditure and improve budget planning for government and beneficiary institutions.

He said the company had an ambitious plan to mobilise close to N1 trillion over time through government equity, concessional funding, green finance and patient private capital.

The Chairman of REA and former Ekiti State Governor, Ayo Fayose, called for greater involvement of state governments in the initiative, arguing that electricity projects serving state and federal institutions should be treated as part of a common national development agenda.

He also stressed the importance of changing attitudes towards public infrastructure, saying sustainability would require stronger commitment from leaders, institutions and citizens.

Representing the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, his Special Adviser, Greg Ezillo, said RAMCO represented a shift from the traditional government model of identifying, procuring, building and commissioning projects to one that included de-risking, structuring, financing, operating, maintaining, optimising, recycling and renewing assets.