The Federal Government has planned to inject $3.7bn to upgrade and expand the nation’s power transmission grid.
Vice President Namadi Sambo disclosed this on Thursday while granting audience to the management of Genesis Electricity Consortium led by a Nigerian businessman, Arthur Eze, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Most of the members of the consortium are attending the ongoing World Economic Forum for Africa holding in Abuja.
A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Umar Sani, quoted Sambo as saying with the injection of the fund, the government would be able to wheel up to 20,000MW of power.
The Vice President added that government, in its efforts to improve power generation, had planned to invest $8bn, on a Public Private Partnership basis, in developing local gas potential.
He added that there were moves to fast-track the system to ensure availability of gas to plants by involving owners of the new plants and international oil companies in gas infrastructure.
Sambo assured his guests of the availability of lots of activities and opportunities in the Nigeria’s power supply sector.
He lauded the consortium for the confidence reposed in the Nigerian economy by investing massively in the energy sector and reviving the Port-Harcourt Refinery.
He also appreciated one of the members of the consortium, General Electric, for partnering with Nigeria to develop her power sector.
He noted their investments in plants that would support the sector in Calabar, injecting $300m into the financial sector and their plans to support training of Nigerians to strengthen the power sector
Other power related issues discussed during the meeting were the efforts of the government on the Zungeru and Mambila hydro power projects, which are expected to generate 700MW and 3,050 MW respectively, and the pilot scheme of the wind power project which would provide about 10MW
