Development Agencies Investing $1.6 Billion in Nigeria Power

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – International development agencies are investing $1.6 billion in Nigeria’s plan to expand its power-grid capacity threefold in four years, the head of the country’s transmission company said.

The World Bank, the French Development Agency, the European Union and the Islamic Development Bank are among agencies committing funds to projects in Nigeria to boost transmission capacity to 20,000 megawatts from the current 7,000 megawatts, Usman Mohammed, managing director of state-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria, said by phone on Tuesday from Abuja.

Transmission is the only segment of the power industry that the government still controls after the state power utility was split into 15 distribution and generation companies in 2013 and sold to private investors. 

As of Sept. 12, only 66 percent of power produced reached consumers because the inability of distribution companies to receive the load and pass it on, Mohammed said.