The Federal Government has set a target to increase electricity generation and wheeling capacity from about 5,000 megawatts to 6,500 megawatts by December, the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, has said.

Tegbe disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at the official launch of the Renewable Asset Management Company (RAMCO), an initiative aimed at promoting clean energy, improving the management of renewable-energy assets and expanding electricity access across Nigeria.

Speaking at the event themed “Powering Sustainability – Launching Nigeria’s Renewable Asset Management Company,” held at the Congress Hall of Transcorp Hotel, Abuja, the minister said the government would subsequently target 8,000 megawatts by the end of 2027.

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He said RAMCO represented a shift in the management of public assets, with emphasis on professional stewardship, sustainability, governance and measurable performance.

According to him, the company will provide an institutional platform for the professional management, optimisation and long-term sustainability of renewable-energy assets while helping to preserve their value and operational life.

Tegbe said the government would also explore the use of stranded power and hydropower assets to supply areas with electricity deficits, including Lagos, Kano and the Port Harcourt axis.

He said the East and West super grids would be revisited as part of efforts to improve the resilience of the national grid.

The minister said RAMCO’s performance would not be judged by the number of megawatts delivered alone but by the reliability and sustainability of electricity supply.

He said, “It’s not about unveiling another institution; it represents an important change in how we think about public assets from a culture that is focused on acquisition; we want to treat them as national investments whose value must be sustained throughout their useful life. We are very good at building public assets but very poor at sustaining them. Success of public infrastructure programmes in the past has been measured by commissioning. Sometimes we don’t even commission them these days; we just build them, then abandon them.

“For me, RAMCO offers a different model, a new paradigm. And like I said, I’m committed to not only limiting this to renewable energy, we’ll also shift it to the entire grid going forward. And this new model will focus on professional stewardship, governance discipline, sustainability and measurable performance. RAMCO is not to be measured by how many megawatts you deliver but the reliability of the delivery and the sustainability of that delivery. Nigeria has lived too long with an embarrassment paradise. We’re very rich in power assets, energy resources and installed infrastructure yet we are poor in visibility depending on electricity. What we’ve tried to do in the last three months is nothing but it’s being celebrated. We’ll get to the point by God’s grace, very soon, where Nigeria will have 24/7 power.”

Tegbe said renewable energy remained central to Nigeria’s future power architecture, noting that the country was targeting a renewable-energy share of 40 per cent in its power mix by 2060.

He added that the government’s long-term objective was to develop a diversified electricity system combining grid supply, embedded generation, interconnected mini-grids, distributed renewable energy, storage and other technologies suited to specific communities and economic clusters.

He said, “We would revisit the East and West super grid so that we could build resilience into our grid. We have struggled to wheel 5,000 megawatts today. My target is that by the end of this year, we’ll conveniently be wheeling 6,500 and by the end of next year, we will be wheeling conveniently 8,000 megawatts.”

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Dr Abba Abubakar Aliyu, said RAMCO would create a competitive market for professional Nigerian energy-service companies, with clear performance standards for energy delivery, revenue collection and asset availability.

Aliyu said RAMCO was not another government agency but a company incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, with the Federal Government’s interests held through the Ministry of Finance Incorporated and governed by a professional board.

He said, “From Nigeria’s pioneering mini-grids to the Nigeria Electrification Project, to the Energising Education Programme, DARES and now RAMCO, we are building an institution that learns, improves and continues-regardless of who occupies the leadership position.

“RAMCO mandate is straightforward: manage publicly financed renewable-energy assets professionally; contract competent operators; meter, bill and collect; maintain sustainability reserves for major equipment replacement and report transparently on asset performance.”

Aliyu said the REA, through the Energising Education Programme since 2017, had deployed 82 megawatts of solar-hybrid generation across 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals.

He said the projects represented approximately N263 billion in investment by the Federal Government, the World Bank and the African Development Bank.

According to him, more than 150 megawatts of additional capacity is either under construction or in the pipeline through TETFund, DARES, the National Public Sector Solarisation Initiative, subsequent phases of the Energising Education Programme, Desert to Power and other publicly financed programmes.

The Chairman of the REA board and former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, called for a change in attitude among Nigerians, saying individual responsibility was essential to achieving national development.

Fayose said, “I want to touch one one item, which is attitude. All being said, if every Nigerian or an average Nigerian changes attitude by 10 percent, the country gets better by 10 percent. As a leader, you make no change except your character and attitude to life. And of you ask me to change, I have to look at my dad, I have to look at my President, I have to look at my leader, what are they doing and why mine should be different.

“When you take a one-way, you blame it on the leadership of the country. And next time your driver takes one-way… I was a very tough man as a governor and was able to confront people properly. But I was able to do one thing which you can find out very well, my second tenure as governor, I did not at any point use a siren and I did not jump light, street lights. And it makes it very easy for me to warn my drivers and my policemen, you won’t even try it. If we all have the right attitude, it will get better.”

Fayose also called for the inclusion of the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory and universities in the RAMCO model to further promote stable electricity supply across the country.

In their separate remarks, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of Education, and the Ministers of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa and Dr Iziaq Salako, among others, commended the initiative and its potential significance to the economy.