YEAC Community Energy and Development Ltd/Gte

12/10/2026

Press Statement for Immediate Release

SHELL-FOUNDED IMPACT INVESTOR, ALL ON'S ACTION SLOWING DOWN ELECTRIFICATION IN NIGERIA, PUTTING INVESTOR CONFIDENCE AT RISK - YGOs

Port Harcourt, Nigeria / London, UK / Virginia, USA – 12th October 2026.

The YEAC Group of Organisations (YGOs) comprising the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), the YEAC Community Energy and Development Ltd/Gte (YEAC-CEAD) which operates its mini-grid, and its international offices and funding partners Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-UK) and Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-USA), is raising concerns over delays in the disbursement of a World Bank-funded electrification subsidy meant for the organisation.

The subsidy in question is the Performance-Based Grant (PBG) under the World Bank-funded Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme, implemented in Nigeria by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).

“We have become collateral damage,” said Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria. “This grant approved under the DARES programme is ultimately earmarked for our grassroots solar development in Umuolu but has not reached its designated destination in YEAC’s account, over four months after it became due. This is, to our knowledge, due to what we understand to be a contractual dispute between All On, the energy impact investment company established by Shell, and NXT Grid, the solar developer contracted by YGOs to help deliver the project’s infrastructure in Umuolu. The continued delay and lack of transparency around its resolution is extremely worrying and is very damaging to YGOs' renewable energy services to communities in the Niger Delta.”

“While REA cannot dictate to guarantees on grant application after disbursement, YGOs strongly believes that it should be of significant concern to REA and the World Bank that their disbursed grant has not reached the final beneficiary-YGOs to achieve its purpose of supporting the provision of energy access to underserved communities.” Dr Fyneface continues.

In a joint statement issued on Monday, October 12, 2026, YGOs stated that the PBG approved and paid under DARES to NXT Grid to support the YEAC’s Solar Mini-Grid in Umuolu Community, Ndokwa East Local Government Area, Delta State, has not yet been disbursed to YEAC since it was due in May.

YGOs engaged NXT Grid as its contracting partner to construct and install the Umuolu Solar Mini-Grid, which was officially commissioned on August 12, 2024. YGOs has since awaited the release of the PBG to sustain operations and expand energy access.

YGOs is now publicly raising the alarm over the non-release of the sum of US$94,400 approved under DARES through NXT Grid for its clean energy projects in the Niger Delta. According to information provided to YGOs, the funds, approved and received on YGOs’ behalf by NXT Grid Nigeria Ltd into its Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) account for onward disbursement to YEAC, are currently inaccessible due to a dispute between All On and NXT Grid, one of its investees.

Umuolu is the first village in the area to gain access to clean energy and forms part of YGOs’ mission and other initiatives to combat pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining and environmental pollution in the Niger Delta. It was one of the first three projects allocated DARES funding in Nigeria.

On May 18, 2026, 10 days after NXT Grid in a press release dated May 8, 2026 and titled “NXT Grid First Developer to Complete the Full DARES Performance-Based Grant Cycle, Securing Milestone One Disbursement for Three Mini-Grids” including that of YEAC, YGOs was informed by NXT Grid that its GTB account, which reportedly holds the funds due to YEAC, had been frozen. YGOs was further told that this restriction was allegedly connected to the dispute between All On and NXT Grid.

YEAC-UK's Country Director Ms. Helena Farstad, on behalf of the group, has contacted the leadership of All On to seek clarification and to explain the impact of their actions on the ground in Nigeria. Notifications have also been sent to the REA and the World Bank, informing them about this issue and seeking their support. In the absence of a timely resolution, the situation continues to cause significant damage to YGOs and its projects and risks affecting future international investment in the renewable energy sector in Nigeria.

“This grant was meant to power livelihoods, create jobs and provide clean energy alternatives to pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft and artisanal refining in the Niger Delta. Restricting it, regardless of the underlying reasons, undermines, in our view, the objectives of the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria,” said Ms. Helena Farstad, Director, YEAC-UK. “It also puts existing and future international investment at risk.”

Contributing to the statement from the United States, Mr. Cornelius J.S. Dumerenee, Director, YEAC-USA, expressed deep concern over the situation, noting that the prolonged non-disbursement of a World Bank-approved grant for a community that has already demonstrated success with clean energy sends a worrying signal to the international donor community and the diaspora who are keen to support electrification and sustainable development in the Niger Delta.

YGOs’ solar mini-grid work started on November 25, 2019, following the hostage-taking of Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface by artisanal refiners who claimed to have been displaced from their illegal refining activities by security operations. While in captivity, he conceived the initiative and used it to negotiate his freedom by promising to electrify their community without electricity (CWE) to power alternative livelihood opportunities and create employment as a means of contributing to the mitigation of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining, environmental pollution and kidnapping in the Niger Delta.

“YGOs is not a party to the dispute between All On and NXT Grid nor do we have knowledge of the details. Yet we are suffering the consequences. As the saying goes, ‘when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.’ This has to stop; our fund should be released and they can continue with their dispute thereafter” said Dr. Fyneface.

In light of this, YGOs is calling on the World Bank, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Shell Nigeria, Shell International and other relevant stakeholders to engage with the leadership of All On, led by Ms. Caroline Eboumbou, Chief Executive Officer, to facilitate the prompt release of the PBG to enable YGOs to continue its vital renewable energy project activities in the Niger Delta.

Signed:

Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, PhD,
Executive Director,
YEAC-Nigeria/YEAC-CEAD.
Website: www.yeacead.org
Emails: [email protected]
[email protected]

Ms. Helena Farstad,
Director, YEAC-UK.
Website: www.yeac.org.uk
Emails: [email protected]
[email protected]

Mr. Cornelius J.S. Dumerenee,
Director, YEAC-USA.

Empowering the Niger Delta for a Sustainable Future YEACCEAD: Advocating for Environmental Recovery At YEACEAD, we are dedicated to restoring the environmental integrity of the Niger Delta while promoting sustainable energy solutions to combat the effects of pollution from fossil fuel extraction. Le...

08/10/2026

YEAC'S PRE-STATEMENT BRIEFING

The YEAC Group of Organisations (YGOs) comprising the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-UK), the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-USA) and the YEAC Community Energy and Development (YEAC-CEAD), Nigeria will on Monday, October 12, 2026 release a high-profile international joint press statement simultaneously in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

The statement will border on an external issue that we have spent the past four months trying to resolve away from public knowledge and have even used third and fourth parties, so to speak, to reach out to the responsible organisation, but all such efforts have so far proved abortive and a public statement now seems to be the last resort, with a view to pushing for a solution.

The statement will mirror the saying that "when two elephants fight, the grass suffers" and highlight how someone innocently and unsuspectingly becomes a victim of something that he/she knows nothing about.

It is the prayer of the YGOs that the statement will resolve the issue in a few weeks' time; otherwise, we will organise a peaceful demonstration in Lagos after officially writing to inform the Governor and Government of Lagos State, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, the Lagos State Command of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Lagos State Command. While the Governor of Lagos State should know about the peaceful demonstration as the Chief Security Officer of the State, the Police and DSS would be informed to provide security during the protest, while the FRSC would be expected to control traffic during the peaceful demonstration, if it holds.

Ahead of Monday, the YGOs solicit the assistance and support of all partner media organisations and individuals to help give the press statement the needed publicity to reach those concerned and address the oppressive issue raised in the statement.

Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface,
Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria.
October 8, 2026.

23/07/2026

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY FYNEFACE DUMNAMENE FYNEFACE, PhD; EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, YOUTHS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY CENTRE (YEAC-NIGERIA) AND DIRECTOR, YEAC COMMUNITY ENERGY AND DEVELOPMENT (YEAC-CEAD) AT THE “MULTI-STAKEHOLDER DIALOGUE ON NATURAL RESOURCE GOVERNANCE, JUST TRANSITION, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY” CONVENED BY CLEMENT ISONG FOUNDATION (CIF) AND THE AKWA IBOM EXTRACTIVE JUSTICE ALLIANCE (AKEJA) IN PARTNERSHIP WITH ACTIONAID NIGERIA UNDER THE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT (SPA) II PROGRAMME WITH SUPPORT FROM DANISH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (DANIDA) HELD IN UYO, AKWA IBOM STATE ON THURSDAY, JULY 23RD, 2026 WITH THE THEME: "ADVANCING COMMUNITY-CENTRED NATURAL RESOURCE GOVERNANCE AND A JUST TRANSITION FOR EXTRACTIVE COMMUNITIES"

Protocols,

I bring you greetings of peace, justice and resilience from the communities and young people of the Niger Delta.

I sincerely appreciate the Clement Isong Foundation (CIF), ActionAid Nigeria, DANIDA through the SPA II Programme, and the Akwa Ibom Extractive Justice Alliance (AKEJA) for creating this platform to advance accountability, community participation and environmental justice. I commend AKEJA for its bold advocacy, including its recent petitions to regulators and extractive companies, which signal a new era of community-led accountability.

I also warmly welcome our traditional leaders, women, youth and fisherfolk from Ibeno, Eastern Obolo, Esit Eket, Eket, Onna and other oil-producing communities. This dialogue belongs to you.

Today, we are not merely discussing natural resources—we are discussing people, justice, power and who benefits from our common wealth.

For over six decades, oil has generated enormous wealth for Nigeria, yet host communities continue to experience environmental degradation, unemployment, gas flaring, polluted farmlands and declining livelihoods. This reality makes community-centred natural resource governance an urgent necessity rather than an academic discussion.

From YEAC-Nigeria's experience over the past nine years, three key lessons stand out:

First, extraction without accountability is exploitation. Although the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 established the Host Community Development Trusts (HCDTs) to improve development through the 3% Host Community Fund, implementation has been undermined by poor transparency, elite capture, exclusion of women and youth, weak community participation and limited public access to HCDT information. Communities deserve to know who manages these Trusts, how much money is received and how it is spent.

Second, environmental justice cannot wait for energy transition. Nigeria's transition to cleaner energy must not ignore decades of pollution. Communities affected by oil spills, gas flaring and environmental degradation deserve remediation, strict regulatory enforcement, proper cleanup, transparent decommissioning plans and accountability from companies, especially as international oil companies divest from onshore assets.

Third, a just transition must begin with communities. Climate policies designed without the meaningful participation of host communities risk creating new forms of injustice. A truly just transition must include local voices, protect livelihoods and ensure that no community is left behind.

To achieve this, I propose four key pillars:

1. From Consultation to Consent and Co-Governance: Institutionalize Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), strengthen community participation in HCDTs, ensure at least 30% representation for women and youth, publicly disclose HCDT budgets and conduct independent community audits.

2. From Palliatives to Productive Economies: Invest HCDT and NDDC resources in renewable energy, green skills, agroecology, community-owned energy projects, mangrove restoration and youth entrepreneurship, while replicating initiatives such as the Ibeno Green Youth Hub across oil-producing communities.

3. From Fragmented Resistance to Coordinated Accountability: Strengthen collaboration through alliances like AKEJA, promote joint advocacy, community scorecards, evidence-based monitoring and engagement with the National Assembly, regulators and financial institutions to improve accountability throughout the extractive sector.

4. From Resource Extraction to Resource Democracy: Improve fiscal transparency by tracking revenues from extraction to community development so citizens understand how much is generated, allocated and invested in their communities.

Young people must not only bear the burden of extraction but also lead the solutions. Their growing role in policy engagement and accountability demonstrates that the future of natural resource governance must be youth-driven and inclusive.

As we deliberate today, I encourage us to agree on three practical outcomes:

- Establish a Community Accountability Framework for HCDTs that guarantees transparency, gender inclusion and annual public reporting.
- Create a State Multi-Stakeholder Platform on Just Transition involving communities, government, regulators and companies to develop an inclusive Just Transition Plan for Akwa Ibom.
- Support community-led action plans on environmental monitoring, ecosystem restoration and sustained advocacy beyond this dialogue.

Finally, the oil beneath our soil is finite, but the dignity and rights of our people must endure. The real measure of a just transition is whether communities such as Ibeno, Eastern Obolo, Eket and other extractive areas transition with dignity, opportunity and environmental justice.

Let us work together to ensure that no community is left behind and that this dialogue produces lasting actions that promote accountability, sustainable development and justice for present and future generations.

Thank you.

02/07/2026

More communities are reaching out to us, Advocacy Centre, YEAC-Nigeria, and requesting to be included and connected on its Solarisation of Communities Without Electricity (CWE) project. On Wednesday, July one, on invitation, YEAC-Nigeria's team led by its Executive Director, Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface visited and assessed five communities in Delta State for possible consideration for the project.

15/05/2026

Press Release IV May 15, 2026

YEAC’S SOLAR MINI-GRID AMONG FIRST THREE IN NIGERIA TO COMPLETE WORLD BANK-FUNDED PBG UNDER DARES VIA ITS CONTACTOR

The Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre Advocacy Centre (YEAC) has been listed among the first three organizations in Nigeria’s solar mini-grid sector to complete the full World Bank Performance-Based Grant (PBG) under the Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES), via its contractor, NXT GRID Nigeria and Netherlands.

Details of this development were publicly shared by NXT GRID Netherlands and Nigeria on Friday, May 15, 2026, and are contained in a 3-page press release dated May 8, 2026, reproduced below.

The Executive Director of YEAC-Nigeria, Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, who also serves as the Director of the Solar Mini-Grid and Renewable Energy-focused YEAC Community Energy and Development (YEAC-CEAD), thanked the UK office of the organisation, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-UK), its Country Director Helena Farstad, and the board members for supporting and funding YEAC’s work on the solar mini-grid in Nigeria's Niger Delta region.

Dr. Fyneface also thanked the team in Nigeria and all other individuals and organisations that have supported, funded and encouraged him and the organisation, one way or the other, leading to these achievements and milestones, adding that more collaborations, support and funding are needed for YEAC to do more for the people and society at large.

He further noted that the support helped turn an idea he conceived on November 25, 2019 under hostage—to power communities without electricity (CWE) in the Niger Delta as part of measures to contribute to the fight against pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refineries, environmental pollution and youth unemployment through alternative livelihood opportunities powered by clean energy—into reality, with expansion to at least 9 more communities now underway beyond Umuolu, Ndokwa East LGA, Delta State.

Signed,

Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene,
Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria
May 15, 2026

28/04/2026

With Advocacy Centre – I just got recognised as one of their top fans! 🎉

24/04/2026

THE YEAC UMUOLU SOLAR MINI-GRID ECOTRICITY SOLUTION MODEL: AN OVERVIEW

The problems it addresses, the approach, the strategies and key achievements thus far

The solutions provided by the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre’s (YEAC-Nigeria) and Youths and environmental Advocacy Centre's (YEAC-UK) Umuolu Solar Mini-Grid Ecotricity Facility include addressing the problem of energy poverty and no access to electricity since the inception of the Umuolu community in Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State, over 700 years ago. Residents have relied on fuel and diesel generators including “I-pass-my-neighbour” which are expensive to maintain, noisy, and polluting the environment. Due to the absence of official products sales points around the community, many households and businesses had to rely on illegally refined DPK to light up their homes in local lanterns, PMS and AGO for lighting in generators and listers, creating a market for pipeline vandalism and artisanal refineries’ products. These caused devastating impacts on the environment, health, and the livelihoods of fishermen and farmers as well as youth unemployment due to lack of power thus pushing youths toward crude oil theft and illegal refining for income.

To mitigate these challenges, the YEAC-Nigeria's Executive Director, Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface wanted to provide an alternative. Both to power communities without electricity (CWE) and to provide alternative livelihood opportunities for displaced and repentant artisanal refiners and youths in the Niger Delta.

The approach continued with international partnerships especially with our United Kingdom Country Director, Helena Farstad, introduced to the project through Noo Saro-Wiwa. We established a foreign subsidiary of the YEAC organization in the United Kingdom, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-UK), set up to raise funds for the projects in the Niger Delta. We also established a dedicated renewable energy daughter company, the YEAC Community Energy and Development (YEAC-CEAD) acting as the developer and contracted NXT Grid Nigeria/Netherlands to install our first solar mini-grid in Umuolu community, commissioned on August 12, 2024.

The YEAC approach and model of mini-grid development is unique in Nigeria. This is because our core objective is not profit maximisation, but the provision of clean energy to communities to mitigate oil-theft in the Niger Delta region. Our facility provides households and businesses with affordable solar power so that they no longer need to use illegally refined petroleum products, particularly DPK, PMS and AGO, to energise their homes and businesses. Our business model is also set up through YEAC-CEAD such that any profits from the project will be reinvested into existing and future projects. This exclusive approach has shrunk the demand for illegal fuel, DPK and AGO in Umuolu thus reducing incentives for pipeline vandalism and artisanal refining. The approach and strategy also addresses alternative livelihoods for youths as the solution is powering small/medium enterprises so youths are “engaged in meaningful economic activities” instead of illegal refineries.

Furthermore, another unique approach of YEAC to the mini-grid development in the Niger Delta is the adoption of the community ownership model. Through this model, the organization liaises with the community to provide and donate land free of charge by the community leadership as part of measures to ensure the community’s full participation, buy-in and ownership. The sense of collective ownership provides the organization with a smoother operational environment, social security and investment protection. The strategy also includes designing the project to be partnership-driven, collaborating with communities, funders, donors and mini-grid powering companies such as NXT Grid Nigeria/Netherlands that also functions as our software providers and technical partners.

This approach and strategy is part of the YEAC-Nigeria's broader oil theft mitigation mechanisms, alongside other initiatives being promoted like the Modular Refinery for artisanal refiners as promised by the Federal Government in 2017, and our July 27, 2020 proposed Presidential Artisanal Crude Oil Refining Development Initiative (PACORDI) that calls for the innovation, modernization, legalization and integration of artisanal refiners into the national economy among other.

The key achievements, results and solutions provided to date include being the first electricity in 700+ years to be provided in the Umuolu community, taking Umuolu from total darkness to stable, noiseless, solar-powered electricity.
“Even if you wake my forefathers from the grave, they will never believe that electricity supply is now in Umuolu”, an Umuolu resident said during the project commissioning on August 12, 2024.

Another achievement of the YEAC solar mini-grid solution is capacity & reach. The grid, currently running at 35.95kWp solar PV with 90kwh Lithium storage connected to 236 households, businesses, healthcare services, churches, schools and other facilities is designed to be expanded, based on increased usage and power consumption. Also, the achievements of the solution further include the socio-economic impact that comes with the facility as the solution powers homes, businesses, schools, churches, and the hospital, fostering economic development, growth and improving the standard of living of the people of Umuolu community, Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State.

Apart from job creation for youths and members of the community as well as those working remotely on the project within and outside Nigeria, we are excited to report that the project has stopped illegal refinery activities around the area as their market in Umuolu has closed. This has also improved environmental conditionalities in and around the area as illegally-refined petroleum products do not have a place in the community anymore. The project has replaced fuel and diesel generators with “noiseless and environmental-friendly” solar and reduced carbon footprint thus contributing to climate change mitigation mechanisms. The YEAC solar mini-grid project also aligns with “national goals of promoting green energy and combating climate change” and serves as a pollution and oil theft mitigation mechanism pilot scheme for Nigeria. The solution is a proof-of-concept that “community energy for households” can shrink the market for illegal refiners in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and reduce pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, and artisanal refineries.

We at the YEAC believe the electrification of Umuolu is the beginning of scaling this model across the Niger Delta to mitigate oil theft, pollution and empower the youths who were hitherto engaged in illegal refineries through alternative livelihood opportunities powered by clean and renewable energy. We are now ready to scale our work significantly subject to additional support and funding, and are in the process of planning a further nine projects in the region where we can power more SMEs, households and public facilities for the people of the Niger Delta.

DR. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface,
Director, YEAC-CEAD.
April 24, 2026.

26/01/2026

PRESS RELEASE *V* 26-01-2026

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLEAN ENERGY: YEAC COMMITMENT IS UNWAVERING

As we commemorate the International Day of Clean Energy today, January 26, the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria) reaffirms its unwavering commitment to promoting renewable energy solutions in Nigeria, particularly in the Niger Delta region.

The organization works to align its renewable energy goals with the national and global focus on accelerating energy transition, and efficiency, ensuring universal energy access, and promoting technological innovation and integration.

YEAC-Nigeria, through its subsidiary, the YEAC Community Energy and Development (YEAC-CEAD),
has been at the forefront of renewable energy advocacy, living by example and practicing what we advocate by installing the first of its solar-powered mini-grids in communities like Umuolu in Delta State, providing clean energy to over 262 households and businesses.

Our efforts aim to:
- Promote alternative livelihoods through renewable energy
- Mitigate pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, artisanal refining and environmental pollution
- Enhance energy access and economic growth in rural communities
- Reduce energy poverty in the Niger Delta

We use the occasion of the 2026 International Day of Clean Energy to call on the government, stakeholders and development partners to collaborate on scaling up renewables, enhancing energy efficiency, and supporting community-led initiatives for a just, inclusive clean energy transition in Nigeria.

Signed,

Dr. Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface,
Executive Director, YEAC-Nigeria.
January 26, 2026.

25/12/2025