Maureen Okpe
The Federal Government (FG) and the French Development Agency (AFD), as efforts to increase the transmission of electricity in the northern parts of Nigeria has signed a €25million grant.
The grant for Northern Corridor Project, being implemented by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and jointly funded by the European Union (EU) is meant to strengthen a low-carbon economic growth in West Africa.
A statement made available by the French Embassey in Nigeria noted that, this will improve the quality of the electricity network and support the development of a regional electricity market under the West African Power Pool (WAPP).
The Honourable Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba, and the AFD Country Director in Nigeria, Xavier Muron, signed the agreement in the presence of the Ambassador of France to Nigeria, Emmanuelle Blatmann, and the Head of Cooperation at the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Cecile TASSIN-PELZER.
Agba disclosed that, “this project will help TCN to operationalize its “Transmission Expansion Plan”, through the construction of additional Transmission Lines and Substations.”
He said that, this will be done across nine states in the northern part of the country, which includes Niger, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Bauchi and Nassarawa”
According to him, the specific objectives of the project, in line with the Nigerian Energy Transition Plan (ETP) are to reinforce globally the north-west network and develop access to electricity for the population, as well as help evacuate and distribute the solar generated power from future projects in the North.
“The project will build more than 800km of 330 kV double circuit transmission lines and construct or upgrade 13 substations and also participate in the WAPP interconnection project with Niger Republic,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the European Union, the Head of Cooperation, Cecile TASSIN-PELZER said; “We appreciate this Team Europe collaboration with the Government of Nigeria, which is a concrete example of how the EU Global Gateway can contribute to major investments in infrastructure development”.
Also, Ambassador of France to Nigeria
Emmanuelle Blatmann reiterated that, “France is committed to helping Nigeria achieve its commitments on climate change in line with the Paris agreement,” while welcoming the Team Europe piece of work to address it.
Mr. Xavier Muron, AFD Country director in Nigeria, highlighted the importance of such a project as a technical enabler for the integration into the grid of the expected solar farms in the North-West part of the country.
He noted that poor transmission network has been a significant bottleneck in many countries for the achievement of mix diversification.
The grant agreement signed represents the EU’s contribution to the project while the AFD contribution of €202 million was signed in December 2020. The total cost of the project is around 238 million Euros including a 12 million Euros contribution from TCN.