The Federal Government is in advanced talks with China’s Export-Import Bank for a $2 billion loan to build a new electricity super grid designed to tackle Nigeria’s long-standing power supply challenges, Bloomberg reports.
Since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came to power two years ago, the National Grid has collapsed many times, a situation that has raised doubts as to the seriousness of the administration to solve the country’s unending electricity problems. This move, therefore, is seen as a bold one on the part of the federal government to show Nigerians that it’s serious about ending power malaise in the country, according to experts in the sector.
The proposed grid project, according to the online newspaper, aims to strengthen power transmission across the eastern and western regions of the country, where most industrial consumers are based.
Adebayo Adelabu, the Minister of Power disclosed the plan at an economic summit in Abuja on Monday, saying the project was part of efforts to decentralise power generation and encourage heavy energy users who left the national grid due to its unreliability to reconnect.
“It’s part of plans to decentralise power generation in Nigeria and get the heavy commercial users that left the power grid because of its unreliability to return,” Adelabu said.
Bloomberg further reported that the minister’s team confirmed that negotiations with China’s Exim Bank were progressing, while the financing for the super grid had already received the Tinubu administration’s approval.
Nigeria’s electricity generation capacity is about 13 gigawatts, but only a third of that reaches consumers through the central grid, which frequently experiences system collapse.
By comparison, Bloomberg reported that South Africa, with a population a quarter of Nigeria’s, has about 70 gigawatts of installed generation capacity.
The unreliable power supply has forced many companies to depend on self-generated electricity, now accounting for nearly half of national consumption.
The new super grid, according to Adelabu, will improve power flow to industrial zones and encourage manufacturing growth.
The minister, the magazine reports, had earlier disclsoed that the federal government has embarked on N4 trillion bond issuance to settle outstanding debts to power generation companies, GenCos, and gas suppliers, not to power distribution companies, DisCos, in the country. .
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