A grant agreement was signed between the Nigerian government and the French Development Agency (AFD) to strengthen the power grid across Nigeria’s Northwest zone.
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Budget and Planning, Prince Clement Agba, and the AFD Country Director, Xavier Muron, signed the agreement, with French Ambassador to Nigeria; Emmanuelle Blatmann and the Head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Cecile Tassin-Pelzer, as witnesses.
A statement released by the French embassy states that the funding will help provide more than 800km of 330 kV double circuit transmission lines and construct or upgrade 13 substations in Nigeria’s Northwestern states.
“The grant agreement signed today represents the EU’s contribution to the project, while the AFD contribution of €202 million was signed in December 2020. The total cost of the project is around €238 million including a €12 million euros contribution from the Transmission Company of Nigeria.”
The North-centric project is jointly funded by the European Union and the AFD.
What this means
- Northwestern states; Kaduna, Nasarawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger, Kano, Jigawa, and Bauchi are to be the beneficiaries of this electricity project.
- The AFD and the EU are supporting the Northern Corridor Power Project which was conceived by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
- The Northern Corridor Transmission project will strengthen transmission capacity in the North Western part of Nigeria and also create the enabling environment for power evacuation to West African Power Pool (WAPP) with Niger Republic.
Project targets
- 5 Gigawatts additional evacuation capacity
- Potential transmission of 17 Terawatts per hour additional electricity every year
- Electricity access for millions of people in Nigeria’s northwest region.
- Creation of 500 jobs in the construction phase and 100 jobs in the operational phase.
What you should know
- AFD has four focus areas in Nigeria, namely, financing low carbon energy transition; diversifying the economy and modernizing public services; reinventing cities, and boosting agriculture, especially at the regional level.
- Since 2008, AFD has enabled improved power supply for 1.8 million people and rehabilitated 2,000km of rural roads.
Backstory
The Northern Corridor project was launched in 2018. It is expected to form the backbone for the WAPP North Coree, which will connect Nigeria, Niger Republic, Benin Republic, and Burkina Faso on a 330kV Double Circuit (DC) transmission line.
The AFD approved US$245mn for the Northern Corridor Project on the 20th of December 2018. The European Union had earlier approved a grant of €25mn for part of the Northern Corridor Project under the AFD support program.
After all this they will not still do anything useless government