Nigeria pledges commitment to Regional Power project.
By Abdul Lawal, Abuja
Federal government of Nigeria has assured funding partners of North Core/Dorsale Nord Regional Interconnector Project consisting of Nigeria-Niger-Benin-Togo-Burkina Faso of its commitment to the realisation of the project for the benefit of all the stakeholders.
President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria also assured of laying solid foundation for energy infrastructure to upscale the energy provision and attract more investors to the country.
Minister of power, Engr. Abubakar D Aliyu gave delivered President Buhari’s message on two occasion on the sane subject matter.
The Minister told the visiting , Country Director, Nigeria Western and Central Africa Region, Shubham Chaudhuri and his team who came for a joint midterm review mission of the project during their courtesy call and the coordinator of the US Government’s Power Africa Programme, Mr. Mark Carrato and his team when they paid a courtesy visit on the Power Minister.
Responding to the issues of Social Safeguard payments (compensation of communities who the project will affect), the Minister said there is adequate budgetary provision to cater for them particularly in the 2022 budget assuring his guests that as soon as all required processes are completed the compensation would commence.
He urged contractors to move to site where there are no encumbrances and stated the need for all funding partners to be aligned in order to avoid delay in the execution of the project.
He assured them that adequate security measures are being put in place by all West Africa Power Pool Countries (WAPP) reminiscence that the Minister of Defence, Nigeria and all other defence ministers in the participating countries were present at the February, 2022 ground-breaking ceremony at Niamey, Niger because of the important attached to the issue of security in the project adding that adequate security strategies will be adopted for the success of the project.
Speaking earlier, the Country Director, Nigeria western and Central Africa Region, Shubham Chaudhuri said as part of the objective of the joint mid-term review mission on the North Core Regional Interconnection Project by the World Bank, Africa Development Bank (AFDB) and the Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) is to discuss the results achieved and constraint to the implementation of the remaining project activities and the Northern Corridor project; Social Safeguard payments steps in terms of resettlement action plan (RAP) implementation in Nigeria; Actions and implementation plan in order to ensure Nigeria electricity is expected by November, 2024.
Shubham Chaudhuri represented by senior energy specialist and project manager, Emmanuel Py further requested for adequate security along the corridors stating its importance to early completion of the project.
Speaking on the Power Africa Programme, Abubakar said the energy transition programme of the Federal Government is to increase the operational capacity through the vision 30-30-30 in which 30% of Nigeria energy would be renewable.
He thanked the delegation for their willing to align with the Nigeria Energy Transition Programme stating that Nigeria’s hope at attaining 0% fossil energy by 2060 is on course.
He stated that the Federal government will continue to work frantically to abate the security challenge which is yielding results so as to attract more investors.
While thanking USAID for their continuous technical support, Abubakar said various areas of interventions in the power sector are opened for investors and would be spelt out in the course of further discussions.
Speaking earlier, the coordinator of the US Government’s Power Africa Programme, Mr. Mark Carrato said USAID Power Africa Nigeria Sector Program (PA-NPSP) has worked closely with Nigeria over the years.
He said the five-year USAID Power Africa Nigeria Sector Program (PA-NPSP) is a pointer to their commitment to increase electricity availability, access and reliability. He assured of continuous engagements to actualize the goal of the project.