Nigeria to sell ‘unutilised’ power to Togo, Burkina Faso

Nigeria, through its electricity generation companies (GenCos) will sell power to four West African countries.

Sule Abdulaziz, acting managing director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and chairman, executive board of the West African Power Pool (WAPP), made this known at a meeting on Wednesday in Abuja.

The countries, namely, Togo, Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin and Niger Republic are expected to make the power purchase through the $570 million North Core Power Transmission Line currently being built.

Under an international treaty, Nigeria already sells electricity to neighbouring countries like Benin Republic, Togo and Niger.

Abdulaziz said the North Core project, funded by the World Bank, French Development Council and the African Development Bank (AfDB), has recorded progress and is expected to be completed in about two years.

“The power we will be selling is the power that is not needed in Nigeria. These generators that are going to supply power to this transmission line are going to generate that power specifically for this project. So, it is unutilised power,” he said.

Abdulaziz also said the country is expecting new generators to participate in the energy export for the 875 kilometre 330 kilovolts transmission line which would run from Nigeria through the four countries.

“In addition, there are some communities that are under the line route, about 611 of them will be getting power so that there won’t be just a transmission line passing without impact,” he said.

He expressed optimism that the project will create jobs while Nigeria will also earn foreign exchange (forex).

“Nigeria has the greatest advantage among these countries because the electricity is going to be exported from Nigerian GenCos, ” Abdulaziz said.

“So from that, the revenue is going to be enhanced and a lot of people will be employed in Nigeria.”

In his remark, Siengui Appolinaire Ki, WAPP secretary-general, said: “The cost is about $570 million and the part of the investment in each country is funded by the country and they are supported by the donors, and Nigeria is taking its own.”

He noted that the funding agreement was ready as participating countries await the disbursement.

“However, the donor agencies had said they needed a power purchase agreement (PPA) between the buying and the selling countries to be executed before releasing the fund,” he added.

“So, we will be addressing the ministers on this, so they can talk to the donors to remove this condition for disbursing the fund and let’s go on with the implementation.”