The Rural Electrification Agency is laying the groundwork for a new class of power companies that could challenge Nigeria’s existing electricity distributors within the next decade or so. The goal: cut down on chronic blackouts and get more Nigerians connected to reliable power.
REA’s Managing Director, Abba Aliyu, shared the plan Thursday at the Oriental News 2026 Conference in Ikeja, Lagos. His remarks were delivered by Gboyega Ayoade, the agency’s Executive Director of Corporate Services.
Aliyu explained that the agency is shifting its strategy. Rather than backing scattered, standalone mini-grid projects, REA now wants to support developers who can build large-scale renewable energy networks ones big enough to power whole communities on their own, without relying on the national grid.
These new entities, called Renewable Energy Service Companies (RESCOs), would give households and businesses an alternative to the traditional distribution companies.
The idea is round-the-clock clean power, delivered through networks of connected mini-grids running on solar and battery storage.
“We at REA are developing something called the RESCOs, Renewable Energy Service Companies that will rival the DisCos in the next 10 to 15 years,” Aliyu said.
He said the old approach one developer, one mini-grid, one community is being replaced. Now, the agency wants companies to think bigger, building anywhere from 20 to 50 interconnected mini-grids to cover an entire area.
“Instead of us encouraging a developer to come in and build one mini-grid in this area and say, okay, I have a mini-grid, no; we’re encouraging developers now to build utility-scale mini-grids so one developer can own the entire community and build about 20 mini-grids to 50 mini-grids,” he said. “So that going forward, you can decide not to use the conventional thermal power and say you want to go completely clean and just focus on that. I want my service to come from AYZ Renewable Energy Service Company. They provide you with clean energy 24-7.”
