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Imagine! Congo to supply Electricity to Nigeria (Must Read)

Published

11 years ago

March 25, 2014

The erratic supply of electricity to homes and business premises in
the last two weeks is as a result of the drop in power generation by
about 963 megawatts as a result of gas supply constraints.
The electricity generation, which was put at 3,463.40MW as of
March 20, dropped to 2,500MW on Mondy.
The Board Chairman, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Mr.
Ibrahim Waziri, who disclosed this to journalists on Monday on the
sidelines of the investors’ conference organised by the firm in Abuja,
said the worsening state of power supply in the last two weeks was
as a result of the series of incidents that had bedevilled the sector
lately.
He said, “Gas supply has dropped significantly in the last two
weeks; in fact, it is exactly two weeks. That has resulted in reduced
generation to about 2,500MW as of this (Monday) morning; we are
back to square one. But we are addressing all these issues.
“Then, of course, we had accidents along the Benin-Sapele road
and a lot of transmission lines collapsed due to fire incidents. These
affected a very small area in that locality in terms of giving them
power. But like I said earlier, these issues are being addressed.”
At the conference proper, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu
Nebo, said the Federal Government was in bilateral and
multilateral relationships with the governments of other countries for
the importation and exportation of electricity.
Nebo, who was represented by the Minister of State for Power,
Mr. Mohammed Wakili, told the investors that the country needed
about $8bn to boost its power transmission infrastructure in the next
five years.
He said the Federal Government had signed a Memorandum of
Understating with the Democratic Republic of Congo to supply
electricity to Nigeria.
Nebo said, “The government of Nigeria is in bilateral and
multilateral relationships at various stages of advancement with
other governments for the importation and exportation of power.
For example, Nigeria has signed an MoU with the Democratic
Republic of Congo for the importation of electricity from the Inga
Dam Power Plant for both local consumption and export to other
countries.
“The Inga is envisaged to exceed 40,000 megawatts on full
exploitation. The TCN network spreads to all parts of the country
and across the borders to some neighbouring countries to form part of
the West African Power Pool.
“With the realisation of Inga and other initiatives, Nigeria will
become a regional hub in international electricity trade, exporting
large swathes of internally generated as well as imported power to
the WAPP countries.”
Source: Punch ng