Kaduna’s power-starved community gets 7.5MVA substation in NDPHC intervention

Niger Delta Power Holding Co. broke ground on a 7.5-megavolt-ampere substation in Rigasa, a Kaduna State community that has gone nearly 15 years without adequate electricity supply.

The state-owned company will build a 7.5MVA, 33/11kV injection substation, a 1.5-kilometre 33 kV line and a 2-kilometre 11 kV line. The infrastructure is meant to strengthen distribution in Rigasa, in Igabi Local Government Area, and improve access for households and businesses. The Bola Ahmed Tinubu Ideological Group facilitated the project.

Hadiza Balarabe, deputy governor of Kaduna State, performed the groundbreaking on Friday, representing Governor Uba Sani. She called the project a life-saving intervention that would ease the community’s long-running power problems, according to a company statement.

The project followed sustained lobbying by Bamidele Atoyebi, the group’s convener, who repeatedly raised Rigasa’s situation with  Jennifer Adighije, managing director of NDPHC. The company’s commitment to the project came out of that effort.

Read also: Nigeria to sell Kaduna power distribution firm over $130 million debt

Adighije was represented at the ceremony by Bello Babayo Bello, executive director for networks. He said NDPHC remains committed to President Tinubu’s goal of better electricity supply nationwide. NDPHC mainly generates power, he said, but its work also covers transmission and distribution, where it targets infrastructure gaps. He described the Rigasa project as a worthwhile investment that would ease residents’ hardship and show what targeted infrastructure spending can achieve.

Patrick Obahiagbon, executive director for strategy and commercial, thanked the Kaduna State government and the community for their cooperation. Mohammed Aminu Idris, the district head of Rigasa, praised NDPHC’s management for its push to widen electricity access.

Senator Shehu Sani and Umar Abubakar Hashidu, managing director of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Co., also attended, along with government officials, industry stakeholders and community representatives. Dahiru Muritala Mohammed, NDPHC’s general manager for distribution, was present. His department owns the project.

The statement did not give a cost for the work or a completion date.

NDPHC was set up to build power plants in the Niger Delta region. Its move into network assets shows how much of Nigeria’s electricity problem sits downstream of generation. Power produced at plants often fails to reach consumers because substations and lines are inadequate or overloaded. Injection substations like the one planned for Rigasa step down high-voltage supply for local distribution networks.

The company said the project reflects its aim of taking power infrastructure beyond generation to close supply gaps, support economic activity and improve living standards in underserved communities across Nigeria.