FG, GE seal $350m power financing deal

Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo

The Federal Government has sealed a $350m financing deal with a global power and infrastructure giant, General Electric, to support the construction of small-scale power projects across Nigeria.

The firm is making available the sum for the construction of mini power plants, which will in turn help economic activities in the country.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, and his counterpart in the Ministry of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, signed on behalf of the Federal Government, while the Global Chairman, GE, Mr. Jeff Immelt, and the Chief Executive Officer, Stanbic IBTC Bank Nigeria, Mrs. Sola David-Borha, signed on behalf of their organisations.

The fund will be managed by Stanbic IBTC.

Aganga had earlier spoke with State House correspondents shortly after leading Immelt and other partners on a courtesy visit to Vice-President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa on Friday.

He said each of the mini power plants would be producing between one and 20 megawatts of electricity.

The minister said, “You need captive power in a place like Kano, for example, where you have a lot of people in the textile sector, who today rely on liquefied petroleum fuel oil or LPFO.

“The cost of production is quite high because of lack of gas and power. They can have dedicated captive power for that sector in industrial zones.

“That is what it (financing deal) is for – financing mini power plants for our industrial zones. They (GE) are taking money from the bank to support our power project.”

Aganga said the new initiative was in furtherance of the ‘country-to-company’ partnership between the Nigeria and the GE in the area of attracting investments into critical sectors of the economy.