The Federal Government has launched the Renewable Asset Management Company (RAMCO) to protect billions of naira invested in renewable energy infrastructure and mobilise an estimated N3 trillion in fresh investments into the sector.
The initiative is designed to tackle the persistent problem of government projects becoming dysfunctional after commissioning due to poor maintenance, inadequate funding and unclear ownership responsibilities.
Unveiling RAMCO at a stakeholders’ event in Abuja on Wednesday, the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said the company marked a major shift in the government’s approach to renewable energy infrastructure.
Rather than concentrating only on constructing and commissioning projects, he said, the government was now focused on ensuring that completed assets remained operational, generated electricity and attracted additional investments throughout their economic lifespan.
Tegbe said Nigeria had historically invested heavily in infrastructure without putting adequate mechanisms in place to maintain the assets.
“RAMCO, therefore, provides the opportunity for us to protect what we build, optimise what we already own, and ensure that every naira invested in energy infrastructure produces sustained service,” he said.
According to the minister, renewable energy is becoming increasingly important to Nigeria’s electricity strategy, alongside grid power, embedded generation, interconnected and isolated mini-grids, distributed renewable systems and energy storage.
He said the Federal Ministry of Power would support RAMCO as part of broader efforts to strengthen electricity supply, improve grid stability, address liquidity challenges and attract private capital into the power sector.
Tegbe, however, said RAMCO’s success would not be measured by the volume of assets transferred to the company but by how many remained functional, the reliability of electricity supplied and the amount of new capital attracted into the sector.
The launch comes amid concerns over the deteriorating condition of some renewable energy projects previously delivered by government.
The Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency, Abba Aliyu, disclosed that about N263 billion had been committed to solar-hybrid generation under the Energising Education Programme, covering 22 federal universities and three teaching hospitals.
Since the programme commenced in 2017, he said, about 82 megawatts of solar-hybrid generation had been deployed, while more than 150MW was under construction or in the pipeline through various programmes.
These include the second phase of the Energising Education Programme, Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up, the National Public Sector Solarisation Initiative, TETFund projects and the Desert to Power programme.
However, Aliyu revealed that an assessment of seven facilities delivered under the first phase of the Energising Education Programme showed that only three remained in good or usable condition.
He attributed the deterioration largely to the absence of sustainable maintenance arrangements, reliable revenue mechanisms and clearly defined responsibility for the assets.
He said RAMCO was established specifically to close the gap.
Aliyu explained that RAMCO had been incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act, with Federal Government interests to be held through the Ministry of Finance Incorporated and managed by a professional board.
The company will manage publicly financed renewable energy assets, appoint competent operators, supervise metering, billing and revenue collection, establish reserves for major equipment replacement and publish performance information.
According to him, the model is designed to prevent government from returning to the Treasury whenever major components of a renewable energy project require replacement.
“If a battery or inverter requires replacement in year eight, we should not return to the Treasury in year eight looking for emergency funding. The money should already be there,” Aliyu said.
He stressed that RAMCO was not intended to become another avenue for extracting funds from public institutions or relying indefinitely on government appropriations.
Instead, the company is expected to build commercially sustainable renewable energy portfolios capable of attracting private investors, banks, pension funds, insurance companies and other institutional capital.
A key component of the model is payment by beneficiary institutions for electricity supplied by renewable energy projects.
Aliyu urged universities, teaching hospitals and other beneficiaries to regard payment for electricity as essential to keeping the assets operational.
He cited the renewable energy project at Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, as an example of the potential benefits of proper asset management.
The plant, commissioned in 2019, serves more than 9,500 staff and students and has generated about N1.8 billion in savings from avoided diesel purchases and electricity bills over five years, according to Aliyu.
He added that the project had also prevented an estimated 2,367 tonnes of carbon emissions.
Aliyu said sustainability tariffs should therefore not be regarded simply as additional costs by beneficiary institutions.
“So a sustainability tariff is not simply a new expense. It is the redirection of part of what an institution would otherwise spend on expensive and unreliable power towards preserving the asset providing reliable electricity,” he explained.
The government is also looking to use RAMCO to stimulate local manufacturing in the renewable energy sector.
Aliyu disclosed that REA had entered joint-development arrangements with seven Nigerian manufacturers covering solar panels, battery energy storage systems, inverters, street lighting and solar asset recycling.
He said a professionally managed renewable energy portfolio approaching 200MW could provide manufacturers with predictable demand, reduce foreign exchange pressures and create skilled jobs.
The REA boss said the agency was targeting another 70 to 80 public institutions for renewable energy deployment within the next three years.
He added that the sustainability framework would also complement REA’s investment of about N135 billion between 2012 and 2024 in grid-extension infrastructure, including 3,766 transformers and approximately 9,556 kilometres of network.
Aliyu said the initial assets would be prepared for transfer to RAMCO after valuation and technical assessments scheduled to run until the end of November.
He said long-term operations and maintenance partners would subsequently be engaged for the relevant sites.
The agency will also work with beneficiary institutions, the National Universities Commission, Ministries of Education and Health, and the Budget Office to develop workable tariff and payment arrangements.
The Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, backed the initiative, saying renewable energy projects had improved electricity supply in some universities.
He, however, disclosed that poor maintenance had resulted in damage to about 30 per cent of facilities.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, also commended the initiative.
Similarly, the Managing Director of InfraCorp, Lazarus Angbazo, said the success of renewable energy programmes should no longer be measured simply by the number of projects completed.
MOFI Managing Director, Armstrong Takang, warned that failure to maintain renewable assets could render huge investments worthless, noting that the failure of a critical component such as a panel, inverter or battery could cripple an entire power plant.
The government is therefore betting on RAMCO to transform publicly funded renewable energy projects into functional, revenue-generating and investment-ready assets.
As Aliyu put it, the life of a public project should not end with its commissioning.
“Its real life begins on that day.”
