EU to provide N33bn for power sector

IFEANYI ONUBA

The European Union on Thursday night said it would provide a loan of €150m (N33bn) to develop the power sector.

The development was confirmed from a statement issued in Abuja by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The statement said the amount was announced when a three-man delegation from the European Union, led Mr. Peter Cameron, had a meeting with the NERC Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi.

Cameron, according to the statement, said they were in the country to assess possible areas the EU could be of assistance in solving the country’s power challenge.

The other members of the delegation are Gerrit Clarke and Daud Carew.

Cameron said the delegation has been in the country for some days, noting that they have spoken with other stakeholders in the sector about the possible areas of assistance.

The Commission, the statement added, has, however, requested for the details of the grant for it to study and arrive at a well informed position on how best the offer could be accessed and optimally utilised.

Amadi in the statement told the delegation that the grant would help address the challenges facing the power sector.

He was quoted to have said, “Three major areas of possible intervention are bridging the huge metering gap; transmission bottlenecks; and the need for embedded generation to improve shortage in power supply.”

Embedded generation, he stated, entails consumption of power generated from a plant within a distribution network without passing it through the transmission network.

In his analysis of the situation in the power sector, Amadi said, “It is a vicious circle; they(electricity firms) cannot get funds if they cannot deliver quality service and the customer will not be willing to pay without quality service.