Nigeria Says Chinese to Build $5.8 Billion Hydropower Plant

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Nigeria said China Civil Engineering Corp. will build a $5.8 billion hydro-power station in the country’s eastern Mambila region with a capacity to generate 3,050 megawatts.

China’s Export-Import Bank will provide 85 percent of the funding for the project, which is scheduled to be completed in six years, Power, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde Fashola told reporters on Wednesday in the capital, Abuja. Nigeria will contribute the remaining funds.

“The scope of works are very extensive,” Fashola said. The project requires the construction of four dams and includes 700 kilometers (435 miles) of transmission lines. One of the dams will be 150 meters high, two will be 70 meters and the smallest 50 meters, he said.

Nigeria is seeking to expand its power generation to drive economic growth after facing its worst contraction in a quarter of a century following a drop in revenue from oil, its main export. The country of more than 180 million people generates about 4,000 megawatts of compared with South Africa, which has a third of the population and a power-generating capacity of more than 40,000 megawatts of electricity.

The government in May said it’s seeking $5.2 billion from the World Bank to boost generation capacity, expand distribution and transmission-capacity and increase access to electricity in rural areas.