World Bank, AfDB boost Nigeria’s power sector with $961m
Not less than a total sum of $961 million or N349.8 billion was raised from the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2018 alone for power transmission investment. The Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Usman Gur Mohammed, reportedly disclosed this recently in Abeokuta, while maintaining that the funds were raised for power transmission investment.
According to the TCN boss, Nigeria obtained the total loan in the region of $1.66 billion loan for the power sector in 2018. While providing the breakdown for the loan, Mohammed said that $461 million of the fund was secured from the World Bank, $500 million from Africa Development Bank (AfDB) while $238 million came from Japanese lenders.
Speaking further, Muhammed maintained that the money had been invested in the establishment of transmission equipment and upgrade of other obsolete power transmission assets.
This, he said, had helped to boost the transmission capacity from 5000 megawatts to 8,100 megawatts. “As at last audit certified by international consultants in December 2018, we have raised $1.661bn for transmission investment. “As you are aware, the transmission was once referred to as the weakest link in the power supply chain. And until we secure this investment, the power supply need of the country and all these efforts cannot achieve their desired goals. We have to recapitalise the Discos and it is something we must do.”
According to the TCN boss, the power distribution companies (Discos) currently suffer from $4.3 billion investment deficit. Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that his administration is bent on driving down the country’s debt profile, while speaking at the opening of a two-day retreat for ministers designate and other top government officials at the presidential villa, Abuja on Monday.
