Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has approved the implementation of a mini-grid scheme for rural communities in the state to provide electricity supply to the rural areas, in line with his rural and urban development agenda.
In the same vein, the governor equally, approved the procurement of 1,194 tons of Aluminum Sulphate at the cost of N399,990,000, a bid aimed at providing potable water for the people of the state.
The decisions were made known during a media briefing with the Governor’s Office correspondents, by the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr Wasiu Olatunbosun and his counterpart, Barr. Temilolu Ashamu from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
The approvals for the implementation of mini-grid schemes and the procurement of the 1,194 tons of chemical called Aluminum Sulphate, at the cost of N399,990,000, and were part of the resolutions reached at the 6th Executive Council Meeting of 2021, held yesterday.
Ashamu, said the Council approved the implementation of the mini-grid scheme for rural communities that have economic activities but are not connected to the national grid. He added that the implementation will be carried out by four contractors, at a total sum of about N575 million Naira.
He explained that the first rollout of the scheme comprised four local governments and communities namely: Ajia Community in Ona-Ara Local Government; Otefo community in Atiba Local Government; Shamu Community in Iwajowa Local Government and Orinsunmibare in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area.
He added that each of the mini-grid will be centred around health care or school and that they will serve other public facilities and also serve residences in the communities.
Ashamu said: “At the meeting, we approved the implementation of a mini-grid scheme for rural communities that have economic activities but are not connected to the national grid.”
“The first rollout of the scheme comprises four local government and communities namely: Ajia Community in Ona-Ara Local government; Otefo community in Atiba Local Government; Shamu Community in Iwajowa Local Government and Orinsunmibare in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area.”
Each of the mini-grid will be centred around healthcare or school. They will serve other public facilities and also serve residences in the communities.”
“The implementation will be carried out by four contractors that will take each community for the total sum of about N575 Million Naira. It is an independent source. We recently announced that we are embarking on a transformer connection campaign for densely populated areas.”
But the places where the national grid has not yet been extended to, this administration has a vision that no community should be left behind. So, that is what birthed this mini-grid scheme.”
While speaking on the decisions taken, the commissioner for information, Dr Olatunbosun, said that the approval for the procurement of the chemical was in line with the government’s vision to provide proper water treatment that will produce good drinking water for the citizens of the state and meet up with the Nigerian standard for water quality.
He said that the chemical will be distributed to all the branches of the Water Corporation in the state so as to be able to give potable water to people in the state.