AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina

The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Monday it would invest $200 million through the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to boost power supply in Nigeria.

The Acting Vice President, Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth Complex (AFDB), Mr. Wale Shonibare, disclosed this when he led some management staff of the bank on a visit to the Minister of State for Power, Mr. Goddy Jedy-Agba in Abuja.

Shonibare, who is also the Director of Energy and Installation in the bank, said the AfDB board had approved $200 million for the sector through REA to support the roll out of mini-grids.

He said: “The AFDB is very active in the power sector of Nigeria and we are ready to do more, the board has approved 200 million dollars to the sector through the REA.

“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.”

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The AfDB chief said the bank was also very involved in the transmission sector of the country as it had a $410 million project to support transmission.

According to him, $200 million had already been approved by the 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.

“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 added. (NAN)

 

Vanguard