Access Nigeria have announced the signing of minigrids contract worth $60m.

A statement on Tuesday said the project finance agreement which was meant to build a $60m portfolio of mini-grid would connect over 150,000 people to electricity in Nigeria.

ENGIE said it had developed a pipeline of mini-grids to be built over the next four years, while CBEA would finance all of the development and construction activities while owning the projects.

ENGIE will also provide long-term operations and maintain services for the mini-grids  and ensure that the residential, commercial, and productive use customers received clean, reliable electricity  while delivering high-quality and customer centric services.

According to the statement, CBEA will also invest the private capital alongside the Performance Based Grant funded by the World Bank and administered by Rural Electrification Agency and the Nigeria Electrification Project

“ENGIE, expanding on its energy access track record across Africa, sees huge value in the development of the mini-grid business in Nigeria. The agreement represents further progress in the African mini-grid space as it will expand access to energy to grid-unserved communities, creating economic growth and increasing socio-economic welfare in the community.

CBEA and ENGIE are excited that this innovative financing approach will provide electricity to more than 150,000 people in Nigeria and can be replicated across Africa,” Associate Director at CrossBoundary Energy Access, Annette Mumbi, said.

“CBEA has improved our project financing approach for mini-grids to deploy capital faster and more efficiently by investing from procurement. These improvements enable developers to build mini-grids and deliver electricity to more people at a faster pace. Our agreement with ENGIE is one more milestone towards closing the gap on more than 600 million people in Africa who lack access to electricity,” CEO, ENGIE Energy Access, Gillian-Alexandre Huart, said.