The African Development Bank (AfDB) would be investing about $610 million for rural electrification and transmission projects in the country.
The bank has approved $200 million through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to boost power supply in Nigeria via mini-grids. Equally the bank is involved in the transmission sector of the country and has allocated $410 million to support a transmission project.
AfDB’s acting vice president for power, energy, climate and green growth complex, Wale Shonibare, made the announcement on Monday in Abuja. “The AfDB is very active in the power sector of Nigeria and we are ready to do more, the board has approved $200 million to the sector through the REA.”
He added: “We are supporting the programme to roll out mini-grids across the country and also to encourage productive use of the grids to upgrade communities. We are also involved in energising education, a programme under which we are dedicating power systems to eight federal universities.”
He said the $200 million has already been approved by AfDB board for phase one to improve transmission lines and provision of sub-stations. “I understand that the agreement was signed last week and we expect the project to progress.
“We are involved in the Jigawa power project, we have approved a grant of one million dollars to support the feasibility study for phase one and the studies are almost completed,” he said.
“We are aware of the issues in the sector and we are working with all the players in the sector, the regulators, NBET all along the value chain looking at how we can make the sector efficient,” Shonibare concluded.