By Adedapo Adesanya
As part of its plans to provide solutions to the country’s electricity deficiency, the African Development Bank (AfDB) has released the sum of $200 million (N61 billion) to Nigeria.
This was made known on Monday, when an AfDB team visited the Minister of State for Power, Mr Goddy Jedy-Agba in Abuja.
The bank noted that in an agreement for the funds release signed last week, the money will be utilised under the Nigerian Transmission Expansion Programme (NTEP).
According to the Acting Vice President of the bank on Energy, Power, Climate and Green Growth, Mr Wale Shonibare, the organisation remains dedicated to ensuring that the country’s power sector improves.
“We’ve come to recap the progress we are making with our several investments within the power sector in Nigeria around the Nigeria Electrification Project, working with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) where our board approved $200 million.
“And we also have the work we are doing with the transmission company under the NTEP programme where we’ve approved $200m for phase one and there is a phase two, it is a $410 million programme,” he said
Speaking further on the $200 million earmarked for the transmission expansion programme, Mr Shonibare noted that, “For the NTEP programme, it was signed last week and so the investments will start flowing into the sector very soon.”
“Over the coming months, we will be looking to progress into the second phase of the power transmission programme,” he added.
On the bank’s partnership with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), he said, “That has already been signed and it is under implementation as we speak. In fact, I am here to flag off the beginning of that programme for the REA.”
He further added that, “We are also supporting government on the Jigawa Solar Project where we provided $1 million to support feasibility studies for phase one and we will be looking at phase two, going forward.
“We are also looking at ways in which we can intervene in the distribution sector. And that work is going on right now, to see what’s the best way of supporting investments in distribution.”
