The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, on Friday inaugurated former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose as Chairman of the Governing Board of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), alongside other newly appointed board members.
The inauguration ceremony took place in Abuja following President Bola Tinubu’s earlier appointment of Fayose to head the REA board. Also inaugurated were Alhaji Ahmadu Abubakar, Mr. Ilyasu Makinta, and three other members and non-executive directors, while Mr. Abba Aliyu formally assumed office as Managing Director of the agency.
Speaking after the inauguration, Fayose expressed gratitude to President Tinubu for the confidence reposed in him and his colleagues. He pledged to provide the political will needed to elevate the agency and secure adequate funding for its programmes.
“My mission in REA is to take the agency to greater heights by providing the needed political will,” Fayose said. “Work has started in earnest; we are reaching out very fast and appealing to people to ensure the work is done. I want to use this window to assure Nigerians that your expectation about my appointment and my colleagues will not be dashed. We will give our best to achieve the Renewed Hope of President Tinubu for the country to be better for us all.”
He noted that many of the challenges in Nigeria’s power sector are concentrated at the grassroots and stressed that the REA’s mandate goes beyond merely supplying electricity. “The assignment given to us is beyond providing electricity but also looking at the population of the country who need to feel the impact of the energy. When this happens, the people will forever be indebted to the agency,” he added.
Earlier, Minister Tegbe charged the new board to prioritise the lives and livelihoods of ordinary Nigerians in every decision. He said the electricity sector must shift its focus from simply counting kilowatts and megawatts to measuring how many communities and people are powered.
“We are moving from just counting kilowatts and megawatts to how many communities and people were powered in the country,” Tegbe stated. He described the REA as a strategic institution for expanding opportunity, noting that every mini-grid, solar home system, and electrified market, school, healthcare centre, or farm represents an investment in human capital, economic inclusion, and national prosperity.
Tegbe said the constitution of the new board aligns with President Tinubu’s drive to strengthen governance and accountability in public institutions. He urged members to provide strategic oversight, uphold transparency, innovate, and partner with development agencies and the private sector, while ensuring the benefits of power-sector reforms reach even the remotest communities.
REA Managing Director Abba Aliyu also thanked President Tinubu and pledged continued efforts to expand electricity access to underserved and unserved communities through the agency’s rural and off-grid programmes.
The inauguration formally marks the commencement of the new board’s tenure under Fayose’s leadership.