The federal government of Nigeria has formed a new committee to initiate the process of accessing $500m African Development Bank (AfDB) loan to upgrade the country’s power infrastructure.
Constituted in Abuja by Nigerian Minister of Power, Chinedu Nebo to fulfill one of AfDB’s pre-conditions, the five-man monitoring and evaluation committee is expected to further draw the financial support from the bank and closely administer the loan.
Proposed to be released in five tranches of $100m each, the loan is said to serve as an intervention fund to boost the power sector.
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), one of the successor companies of the unbundled Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and responsible to evacuate and transmit generated electricity, will access the loan as part of its efforts to bridge growing gap of power transmission.
Commenting on the development, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, represented by the ministry’s permanent secretary Godknows Igali said during the inauguration of the committee that forming technical committee is critical as it is required by AfDB to access the loan.
"We have been challenged by the problem of not being able to evacuate power beyond 4,500 megawatts," said Nebo.
"From what the TCN gave us, if we have appropriate funding, in the next one year, we will be able to double our transmission capacity."