Tuesday, May 28, 2013

President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to turn the sod today for work to start fully on the construction of 700 megawatts (MW) Hydroelectric Power Plant in Zungeru, Niger State.

The plant is to be built by Chinese consortium, CNEEC-Sinohydro consortium and work on it is expected to be completed by the year 2018. The project has been estimated to will cost 163 billion naira ($1.04bn) at completion after review by French firm Coyne et Bellier in 2008.

Hajiya Zainab Kuchi
The funding for this enormous project will be provided by the Federal Government and Exim Bank of China in the ratio of 25:75 respectively. Contract terms stipulate that Nigeria will provide its funding contribution which stands at about $309 million.

The Minister of State for Power, Hajiya Zainab Kuchi at the contract signing ceremony early this year, claimed that the money is already domiciled within the Ministry of Power. She also noted that the Ministry of Finance was to finalize all legal paper works to activate the 75% funding from the Exim Bank of China.

“The feasibility studies and engineering design was reviewed in 2008 by Coyne et Bellier and a report submitted which recommended that an installed capacity of 700MW consisting of 4×175MW plants units representing downward review of the initial capacity of 950MW should be adopted, the recommendation was accepted by the ministry.” She said.

Chief Representative of CNEEC-Sinohydro consortium in Nigeria, Ju Shiquan, told reporters over the weekend in Abuja, that the smooth take-off of work at the hydro plant had been concluded, hence, the official turning of the sod by the President today. It is expected that the credit for the project will be repaid through revenues generated by the project following its completion.

This is a step in the right direction as Nigeria has been battling with power problems in her bid to become one of the top 20 economies in the world by 2020.

The generation at the beginning of the year stood at 4500MW but various unconfirmed reports have claimed there have been drop in generation during the course of the year.

We hope President Jonathan will be able to fulfill the promise made by his special assistant, Dr. Doyin Okupe that his administration would have put an end to the power problem by 2015. This plant won’t be part of the ‘solution by 2015’ though.

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