B&S power holding, a Singapore-based renewable energy company, and Sunnyfred Global, a Nigerian investment company have collaborated to develop the Ashama solar farm with a capacity of 200 MW. The solar project is located in an area of about 304 hectares in Ashama Village, Aniocha South of Delta State in Nigeria. Together, the companies will design, develop, finance and construct the project, which is expected to be the largest solar project in the West African region.
According to the World Bank, over 80 million Nigerians are without access to electricity and millions more suffer from poor service despite efforts by the Federal Government to provide electricity in the country. Also, about 60 Million of these Nigerians spend more than 1.6 trillion Nigerian Naira on fossil fuel generators yearly. The Federal Government of Nigeria however expects renewable energy to fill a substantial portion of the electricity poverty gap in the country.
Nigeria is potentially the largest market for decentralised solar in West Africa as it reported and inflow of $374 million in the last decade international donors. The country had small-grid solar capacity of 2.8 MW in 2019, with 52 of the 59 projects solar-powered. Further, only 55 per cent of the nation’s population is connected to the national electricity grid with a large fraction of people facing frequent power cuts of up to 15 hours per day. West Africa is a region with unreliable electricity supply and a need for more developed electricity supply systems. Currently, only 50 per cent of the population in West Africa has access to electricity. Those who do have access to electricity pay among the highest prices in the World (more than double those of consumers in East Africa).