Nigeria Targets 10,000MW Of Electricity From $3bn Interventions

Nigeria’s Federal Government on Monday said, 10 Gigawatts (10,000MW) of electricity is feasible from an investment of $3 billion being made in the power sector.

The prevailing situation of the nation’s power sector has rendered most of the previous projections by political actors a mere lips service as the country’s current transmitted electricity only stands below 5,000 megawatts. By projections, Nigeria should be generating 40,000 megawatts while a plan indicated leapfrog to 30 gigawatts by 2030.

Nigeria’s Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo however told stakeholders at a conference organized by the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics (NAEE) that bottlenecks are being addressed while noting that accelerated investment in transmission and distribution of over $3 billion will put Nigeria on a path to 10GW of electricity.

According to him, the fund is being provided as interventions from the Central Bank of Nigeria, Siemens partnership, World Bank and African Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), French Development Agency and others.

This administration has transformed the Rural Electrification Agency into a renewable energy-driven organization with Solar power at its heart, the five million Solar Connections Program – Solar Power Naija aims to electrify 25 million citizens through the private sector and public-private partnerships and is the largest off-grid connections program in Africa.

He noted that the $2.6 billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline would address gas constraints, adding that the NLNG train seven project would lead to an increase in capacity of up to 30 per cent and keep Nigeria at the forefront in Liquified Natural Gas globally

According to him, the completion of the OB3 line in 2021 would strengthen Nigeria’s position as the sixth-largest gas country and ninth in gas export.