By Oluwakemi Kindness
Nigeria and Germany on Tuesday expanded their partnership on renewable energy and digital innovation.
The move expected to accelerate electricity access after the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) connected 4.5 million Nigerians through its clean energy programmes.
The renewed collaboration was announced in a joint statement issued in Abuja by the Federal Ministry of Power, the REA and the German delegation during the visit of Germany’s Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Johann Wadephul.
The partnership supports Nigeria’s goal of achieving universal electricity access by 2030 under the Mission 300 initiative.
The statement said the REA has become the Federal Government’s main platform for delivering large-scale decentralised electrification through programmes such as the Nigeria Electrification Programme (NEP), the $750 million World Bank-funded Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) Programme, the Energizing Education Programme and the National Public Sector Solarisation Initiative.
It added that VIDA, a German artificial intelligence and data company, has played a key role in powering the DARES Programme by providing data analytics and digital mapping tools that have helped save more than $100 million in public funds through better planning and transparent subsidy allocation.
According to the statement, the platform has also enabled the REA to extend electricity to harder-to-reach communities, while about 200 private sector companies now use its market intelligence to invest in new energy connections across the country.
As part of the visit, the REA and VIDA signed an agreement to extend and expand their collaboration, reaffirming Nigeria and Germany’s commitment to deploying digital innovation, data and artificial intelligence to drive universal electricity access and sustainable economic development.
The statement noted that Nigeria’s data-driven electrification model is now being shared with other African countries pursuing universal electricity access under Mission 300, positioning the country as a continental reference point for clean energy planning.
