Firm powers Rije village with 20KW biogas, prepaid meters

By Gabriel Ewepu

AN agricultural firm, Ajima Farms, has powered Rije village in Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, with 20 kilowatts of biogas from generators.

The project, called Ajima Farms Biogas Digester Off-Grid, was commissioned at the weekend by the United States African Development Foundation, USADF, led by its Regional Director, Tom Coogan, along with project coordinator, Ajima Farms, Fatima Ademoh, and Reji Village Head, Ibrahim Kuyagwa.

Ajima Farms was the inaugural winner of the United States African Development Foundation, USADF, Off-Grid Energy Challenge, as energy entrepreneur, which was also conducted in eight other African countries.

U.S.ADF gave a grant of $100, 000 to Ajima Farms, and later expanded the  funding with $50, 000 for a second biogas project in Kuwizhi village in the same area council of the FCT, and since 2013, USADF has funded over 70 entrepreneurs in nine countries, and has invested over $7.5 million in these enterprises.

Ademoh said: “We own Ajima Farms and we were presented with two problems, which were agricultural wastes and surrounded by villages that are not connected to the national grid and could not access electricity. We looked on how we can solve these problems.

”The wastes, as we looked at them, were not good for the health of the community, and the gas released by these wastes into the atmosphere is 24 times dangerous more than carbondioxide as a greenhouse gas.

The project has three components, which are energy generation, clean gas cooking solution and energy efficiency. We have similar project at Kuwizhi with 10 kilowatts.

“That gave birth to the biogas project here in Rije village of Kuje Area Council. This is to power the community. Currently, we gather waste from commercial farms around here and also get waste from the community, and the youth bring them on site. They secure and operate biogas generators.

“There is a meter that regulates the consumption of power from the source of power supplied to consumers in the village through the pre-paid metering system we have, and is not the same with the power Distribution Companies.”

According to her, currently 45 per cent of Nigerians are not connected to the national grid, which makes them to have concern with communities that do not have access to electricity, and added that biogas remains a clean form of energy, whereby the government could come up with Public Private Partnership, PPP, to deploy this energy at a larger scale.

In his remarks, the Regional Director of USADF, Tom Coogan, expressed optimism that the power generated and supplied to the village would transform the lives of the people.

”We have a large presence in Nigeria. We have projects in the North and the Niger Delta region, specifically on power and youth. Funding for this project came for USADF with $150, 000.’’

 

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