The Federal Government has begun negotiation with investors towards the construction of three hydropower plants with a combined capacity of 2,110 megawatts.
Findings reveal the projects include the 360MW Gurara II Hydropower Plant, 750MW Lokoja Hydropower Plant, and 1,000MW Makurdi Hydropower Plant.
Suleiman Adamu, the Minister of Power Resources, revealed this in Abuja at his valedictory press conference. He confirmed that the concession process of the recently completed 40MW Kashimbilla Hydropower Project had equally started.
“The National Water Resources Masterplan has identified that Nigeria has a hydropower potential of 12,220MW. It is, therefore, important to pursue more vigorously hydropower generation to meet the nation’s needs.”
“The concessioning of 30MW Gurara Hydropower Plant has attained financial closure and it is planned to come into full operation soon. In addition, we are in discussion with potential investors for other hydropower projects including Gurara II (360MW), Lokoja (750MW) and Makurdi (1000MW), among others.”
Passing the blame: The Minister put the total number of major ongoing and abandoned projects he inherited upon assumption of office in 2015 at 116. The breakdown shows irrigation and drainage projects were 38, dams and reservoir were 37, while water supply projects were 41.
“Many of the projects were either abandoned or comatose because they required a review of scope, or cost, or lacked consistent funding to complete. Most of the projects had only attained 40 to 60 percent level of completion or less, while outstanding liabilities on them stood at N88,848,112,579.77.”
He further remarked that Government’s 2016 technical audit classified the 116 uncompleted and abandoned projects into low, medium, and high priorities.
“Available resources were committed to actualising the completion and inaugurating all the high and medium priority projects. Projects that were ascertained as non-viable by the technical audit were dropped completely. So far, 11 projects have been completed and inaugurated.”
