The Federal Government and multilateral donor agencies are expected to sign three key transmission projects deals worth $956 million to be executed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria under its national grid expansion plan before this month ends.
Already, a meeting had been held between the TCN and representatives of the multilateral donor agencies in Abuja to fine-tune the modalities for the implementation of the multi-million dollar projects across the country.
Available documents relating to the issues discussed at the meeting indicated that the projects listed for final approval were the Nigeria Electricity Transmission Access Project (NETAP), worth $486 million and financed by the World Bank; the Lagos/Ogun transmission project worth about $200 million funded by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA); and the Northern corridor transmission project worth $245 million and €25 million, provided by the French Development Agency and the European Union.
According to the document, final approvals for the projects are expected to be secured this month.
In addition, the documents showed that while the AFD, EU and JICA were expected to sign off on their respective support for the projects this month, the Nigerian government, during the November Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, would approve the World Bank-funded project to take off.
The TCN disclosed that the NETAP would help upgrade most of Nigeria’s transmission substations.
It also stated that the final mission of JICA on the Lagos/Ogun project aimed at financing the construction of five substations and associated transmission lines in Ogun State would happen in November, adding that the compensation for the Right of Way for the project has been negotiated downwards to N5 billion from N8 billion.
The transmission company explained further that the Northern corridor project would build two new 330kV double circuit transmission lines from Kainji to Kura in Kano, through Birnin Kebbi, Sokoto and Katsina among other towns.
The TCN’s Managing Director, Usman Mohammed, pointed out that company had transparently developed the projects to attract donor funding, adding that the procurement processes of the TCN had been reviewed to emphasise on the capacity to deliver projects.
He explained that this initiative helped the company to secure the support of the donor agencies in terms of projects’ funding.
