To stem the abuse of electrical installation and the use of generating sets with a view to ensuring safety, the following measures were taken and success recorded:

•  More than 595 electrical wiring licences were issued in 2004.

•  73 generating set licences were also issued.

•  Revenue of about N18m was thus generated in the year 2004.

NATIONAL RURAL ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAMME 

The Ministry has made much progress in the implementation of the National Rural Electrification Programme:

•  662 of the 774 LGHQs representing 85% are currently connected to the National grid;

•  Work on 56 other LGHQ projects is presently on-going;

•  565 projects were completed and connected to the national grid from June 1999 to May 2003 and additional 209 projects have been completed between June 2003 to date;

•  Over 1500 rural electrification on-going projects are presently at different stages of execution and 557 constituency projects were recently awarded.

With a total grant-in-aid of JY3.48b provided by the Japanese government and a counterpart funding of N348.8m from the Federal Government, the rural electrification programme was executed in

•  Awe and Keana in Nasarawa State ,

•  Bogoro in Bauchi State ,

•  Kalshingi in Gombe State and

•  Damasak in Borno State .

Presently, the Japanese Government through its Development Agency, JICA, is working on the design of the following projects:-

•  Becheve, Utanga/Ranch and Eburutu in Cross River State .

•  Ibedu, Ikpa Ikono Clan in Akwa Ibom State .

RURAL ELECTRIFICATION AGENCY

A key feature of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 is the creation of a Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to be supervised by the Ministry. The REA had since been inaugurated.