NIGERIA – federal government of Nigeria is planning to spend US$2.7 billion on power grid infrastructure development.
The grid infrastructure spend is aimed at supporting the rehabilitation and upgrade of Nigeria’s electricity transmission substations and lines, to increase the power transmission network and allow distribution companies to improve supply to consumers.
Nigeria’s power grid is dilapidated and has been unable to ensure smooth transmission of power, with reports of the grid collapsing twice within 48 hours.
Some of the projects that Nigeria is implementing to fix its grid include the US$486 million Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project (NTEP) being financed by the African Development Bank Group (AfDB).
The project is part of the national Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP). The first phase of the project is earmarked for completion by December 2024.
Africa’s biggest economy is also implementing the US$568 million North Core Interconnection Power Transmission Line, a regional project with West African Power Pool (WAPP) set to complete this year.
The project will integrate the power systems of West African countries with the aim to ensure that all fourteen countries in the mainland of ECOWAS are eventually interconnected.
Additional projects to improve the West African country’s grid include the federal government-funded US$200 million Nigeria Electrification Project.
The US$210 million Nigeria Transmission and Expansion Programme to be funded by the African Development Bank, the US$170 million Abuja Power Feeding Transmission Scheme, and the US$245 million Northern Corridor Transmission Line to be funded by the French Development Bank.
The West African country privatized its power generation system in 2013 with the aim to improve its electricity situation but problems with grid infrastructure are stifling the country’s electricity supply potential.
The country has targets to reach 40, 000 megawatts of electricity generation capacity by 2020 but the total generation capacity remains at 12,000 MW.
The country’s energy availability factor is around 50% with 6,000MW of the country’s generation capacity being realized and only about 4,000MW is wheeled to end-users due to transmission and distribution bottlenecks.
The federal government’s efforts are aimed to reduce the power outages, which prevent people from meeting routine business and household needs resulting in huge economic and social costs.
The general outcome of the project will see an increase in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) supported by the continuous supply of power in the country for businesses and companies.
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