Massimo De Luca, Head of Co-operation, European Union (EU) Delegation says the EU is ready to begin the procurement of equipment for the five selected states in furtherance of its technical assistance for the Nigeria Solar for Health project (NISHP).

The five states that have been selected for the project are Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu, Ogun, and Plateau.

De Luca disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja during the 2nd Steering Committee meeting of the Technical Assistance for the NISHP, an EU-funded programme.

“We are already launching and ready to commence equipment procurement for the five selected states of Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Enugu, Ogun, and Plateau,” he said.

He reiterated EU’s commitment to executing the project which will focus on expanding access to clean, efficient, and reliable energy supply.

Tinyan Ogiehor, Stakeholder Manager, NTU International observed that the second steering committee meeting which has brought together all participating states, discussed core issues of sustainability and operations to deliver the solar for health projects in their state and at the state level focusing on state ownership, stakeholder responsibilities, maintenance, and distribution.

“We are channeling strategic discussions around how we can totally address the issue of sustainability and what private sector models are needed to deliver in each state and how they will ultimately operate within the States.

“We also brought in a telecom provider from American Towers to highlight their expectations, as they anticipate receiving power from a mini grid.

“Generally, we are here to rub minds with the EU, Ministry of Power, Rural Electrification Agency, at the National level to map out sustainability plans and how the project will be sustainable.” he added.

Also Speaking at the event, Ibrahim Shehu, representative of Sunday Owolabi, Director of Renewable Energy and Rural Access at the ministry said

it is a welcome initiative because it will empower our health centres, especially the Primary Health Care.

“Sustainability is the main issue and with the counterpart findings from the State ,there will be a lot of commitments from the States.

“On energy supply and sustainability, business activities around the health facilities will help generate revenue that can maintain the grids while strengthening the value chain around the health care systems in Nigeria.

“Solar projects are capital intensive and in order to have good off takers and not just the Primary Health Care, they should consider viable sites and areas that have activities to focus on while at this project.” he added

Hon. Damilola Otubanjo, Senior Special Assistant to Ogun State Governor on Special Duties and SDG”s ,a renewable Energy Engineer, said, “This kind of interaction is critical.

“I commend the EU for this wonderful initiative i am particularly passionate about this project because it’s my space.

“For my state honestly, I feel that most of the impacts will be with deploying to more Primary Health Care systems, we can find a lot of smaller primary health centers that really have power needs and focus on them instead of bigger and fewer secondary ones.

“It is a privilege that Ogun State is one of the first beneficiaries, we have to reciprocate the goodwill of the EU by ensuring that the project does not fail, we want to scale up and expand on this and not just on distribution.” he added.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NISHP project which will run from 2024 to 2027 aims to bolster the country’s healthcare system by providing solar power to public health facilities in participating states.

Implementing partners are GIZ, NTU, and American Towers.