By Seun Ibiyemi
Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has said the deployment of off-grid solar solutions across educational institutions is improving learning conditions and strengthening the sustainability of university operations.
The initiative, being implemented under the Energizing Education Programme (EEP) by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), is designed to provide tertiary institutions with dedicated and reliable electricity.
Speaking during an interview on the Afropolitan Podcast, Alausa said persistent national grid failures and rising electricity costs had undermined academic activities, scientific research and campus life.
He explained that universities could not achieve their educational and research objectives without dependable power supply, particularly for lecture halls, laboratories, student accommodation and university teaching hospitals.
“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.
The minister said the transition to dedicated solar mini-grids would help protect academic activities from recurring power outages while reducing the financial burden associated with conventional electricity supply.
According to him, high electricity tariffs have placed significant pressure on university finances, diverting funds that could otherwise be used to expand faculties, acquire equipment and improve academic infrastructure.
READ ALSO: Tinubu FOIA case is civil records dispute, not criminal trial – Presidency
“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 stated.
Alausa described reliable electricity as a key component of the Federal Government’s broader human capital development agenda, saying it would help position Nigerian universities as globally competitive research centres and support long-term economic transformation.
He also disclosed that the government had established the Renewable Energy Asset Management Company as a special-purpose vehicle to maintain the solar mini-grids deployed under the programme.
The minister said the arrangement was intended to ensure that the infrastructure remained operational beyond the tenure of the current administration.
“As Minister, I don’t just want to leave projects that will deteriorate after two years, we are aiming for sustainability that will last beyond my tenure,” he said.
