The Federal Government has finally signed its backing of a $237 million World Bank Partial Risk Guarantee (PRG) for the construction of the 450 megawatts (MW) Azura-Edo Independent Power Plant (IPP).
The government by this development has also underlined its commitment to the on-going power sector reform and support for the 450MW Azura IPP which is the first of a series of new IPPs that will drive growth in Nigeria’s power sector.
Details of the final closure was contained in a statement from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), Sunday in Abuja.
NBET which is also known as the Bulk Trader stated that parties to the suite of the PRG agreements included the federal government represented by the Ministry of Finance and NBET; the World Bank in its role as the provider of the guarantees; the project sponsors represented by Azura Power West Africa Ltd; as well as various lenders represented by JP Morgan, Standard Chartered Bank, Rand Merchant Bank, Standard Bank and Siemens Bank.
According to the NBET, the execution of the World Bank guarantees comes on the back of the release, earlier this month, of the legal opinion of the government’s Solicitor General, confirming the validity of the put-call option agreement that was signed last year by the government, NBET and Azura Power
