The Nigerian government has secured US $1.16 grant from the United States of America as part funding for the NNPC-Abuja Independent Power Project (IPP). The agreement was concluded through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).
While making the revelations, Mr. Samson Makoji, Acting spokesman for NNPC, said that the agreement was the outcome of a business meeting between the management of NNPC and the USTDA at the NNPC towers.
The 1,350MW power plant
The IPP was modeled to generate 1,350 megawatts of electricity to alleviate the power challenge in the country. The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Malam Mele Kyari, said the plan by the corporation to build the 1,350MW power plant in Abuja was part of the national strategy to monetize the abundant natural gas resources in the country.
“As a state-owned oil company and enabler organisation, we know that our investment in the Abuja 1,350mw IPP will increase energy supply level with great impact on the nation’s economy,” said the GMD.
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Foreign direct investment
The GMD also assured the U.S. team that every money given as grant to the corporation would be fully utilised and accounted for. He added that the USDTA grant was to complement the ongoing feed project in order to make the Abuja IPP initiative more bankable for strategic investors’ participation.
“The USTDA grant is timely to make it a bankable project that would attract foreign direct investment into the country,” he said. Mr. Kyari further called on the USTDA to look beyond feasibility studies to actual delivery of the project, stressing that the power plant project has a lot of viable investment opportunities.
