Date: 2017-07-04

The Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, on Wednesday, July 3, 2017, signed a partnership agreement with Africa Growth and Energy Solutions (AGES), for a proposed Power Solution Initiative of 100Mega Watt, to the tune of $150million. Vice-Chancellor, Professor AbdulRasheed Na'Allah and Project Manager/Coordinator, Mr. Teslim Balogun signed for KWASU, while Director of Project, Royston Dawkins and Country Coordinator, Ghalib Saibu, signed for AGES, a company focused on developing and delivering renewable energy projects in Sub Saharan Africa.

The partnership agreement is expected to culminate in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two institutions.

Speaking at the event held at the Council Chambers of KWASU, Dawkins said AGES is a company established in the United Kingdom (UK) with considerable proven track record in providing renewable energy with its partners across Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.

He stated that as a company, AGES believes that everyone should have access to power, explaining that the company would need 500 acres of land space to provide the proposed 100Mega Watt of energy.

The Project Director added that the energy project would be structured as an Independent Power Producer to be owned and operated in partnership with KWASU. He said, when actualised, the energy project would boost the Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR) of the University and contribute significantly to infrastructure development of the state.

He stated that the project would also provide electricity to the state capital and the rural community, as well as create employment opportunities. "We will train local people to operate and to be able to maintain the power plant completely," he said.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor AbdulRasheed Na'Allah, had assured that the University has formable energy research team, to make the project a success, adding that AGES will work closely with RanaPower Energy Manufacturing Company Limited, An energy company incorporated by KWASU.

Noting that the project must be about how to utilise local resources to create energy, the Vice-Chancellor said, "It must be a technology that will be powered by our own resources, so that at the end of the day, it will be cheaper."

"It must not be something that we will do now and in five years' time, we are looking for somebody from abroad to come and repair. It must be something that our own young people can continue to maintain," he added.

Professor Na'Allah, who noted that KWASU is the only University in Nigeria with a UNESCO Chair in Alternative Energy, assured that the Institution has all it takes to mobilise the Federal and State Governments, as well as the private sector of the economy, for the actualisation of the energy project.