Ejiofor Alike
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has concluded arrangements with the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) to sign a $1.16 million grant as part-funding for the NNPC-Abuja Independent Power Project (IPP), modelled to generate 1,350 megawatts of electricity to alleviate the power challenge in the country.
At a meeting yesterday in Abuja between the NNPC and the US Trade and Development Agency, both parties agreed to close the deal on December 1, 2019.
NNPC Group Managing Director, Mallam Mele Kyari, said the plan by the corporation to build the 1,350mw power plant in Abuja was part of the national strategy to monetise the abundant natural gas resources in the country.
A statement signed by the Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Samson Makoji, stated that the USDTA grant was to complement the ongoing feed project in order to make the Abuja IPP initiative more bankable for strategic investors’ participation.
“As a state-owned oil company and enabler organisation, we know that our investment in the Abuja 1,350mw IPP will increase energy supply level with great impact on the nation’s economy. Therefore, the USTDA grant is timely to make it a bankable project that would attract foreign direct investment into the country, ” he said.
He assured the US team that the grant will be fully utilised and accounted for.
“This company is focused on making our systems and processes transparent and accountable and that is why we are engaging world-class institutions with good track record in execution of our projects,” Kyari explained.
He called on the USTDA to look beyond feasibility studies to actual delivery of the project, stressing that the power plant project has viable investment opportunities for all investors.
In her remark, the Country Manager, Power Africa and the leader of the USTDA delegation, Jullian Foerster, stated that her organisation was determined to work with the corporation to sign off on the grant not later than December 1.
She said USTDA was open to other business opportunities in 2020, noting that NNPC’s strategic role as a key player in the oil and gas industry made the US agency to “jump at the opportunity to work on this deal” of providing support in the form of a grant.
