By Patricia Amogu

The Kaduna State Government has called on the European Union (EU) to support it with solar panels to enable it to boost solar power supply to its hospitals and healthcare centres.

Mr Idris Aminu-Idris, the Managing Director of Kaduna Power Supply Company (KAPSCO), made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on the sidelines of an event organised to inaugurate the Federal Steering Committee for the EU-funded Nigeria Solar for Health (NSHIP ) project.

Aminu-Idris said the EU support would go a long way toward deploying cleaner energy systems for the  hospitals in the state.

The call is coming as Nigeria gradually transitions to clean energy sources that will reduce carbon emissions and bring Nigeria closer to achieving its net zero goals across various states in the country.

“Kaduna State has benefited and we can testify that this is a welcome development and it is going to ensure that there is access to electricity off-grid solution for the primary health care centres

“Now, in the previous phase of the EU donations, we were actually able to support about 10 general hospitals with about 792 kilowatts of power – totally off-grid.

“So, from the state government’s side, through KAPSCO, we are able to maintain all those general hospitals because we have an operation and maintenance team.

“Beyond that, we have an annual budget from the state government for the operation and maintenance of the primary healthcare centres.

“We are happy to be part of the EU-funded Nigeria Solar for Health Project and we will key into the new phase of the EU donor fund.

“We are very much ready and we have done so much already. We are going beyond the nine primary healthcare centres that the EU project wants to take completely off-grid,” he said

The KAPSCO MD said through the state government’s effort, out of the 255 primary healthcare centres in the state, “we have so far taken 209 of them off-grid.”

“Again, the remaining off-grid solutions for the primary healthcare centres are ongoing.

“So, you can see that Kaduna State has gone beyond the primary healthcare centres.

“We are going to our major hospitals and would like the EU to come in fully and support us .

“We are particular about the Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital; we have a major hospital in Zaria also called Gambo Sawaba General Hospital; then we have the Patrick Yakowa Hospital in Kafanchan.

He said that the the state government has already created synergy between the relevant ministries that are supposed to work close to drive the EU-funded project effectively.

“Kaduna State is ready for that. We are now going to create the cooperation between the Ministry of Health and the agency to ensure that this project is grounded.

“Already there is a synergy between the state’s power supply agency and the healthcare sector in the State.

“We have been working together over the years.it has gone beyond this, we have started for so many years and we have worked over some period of years,” he added.

NAN reports that the technical assistance for Nigeria Solar for health project aims to provide 24 hours green and reliable electricity supply to critical public healthcare facilities and reduce CO2 emissions compared to grid -connected diesel and petrol generators.

The project is funded by the EU and implemented by NTU International A/S, the implementing organisation. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)