FG may move $1.66bn TCN loan to Siemens for Nigeria-Siemens 25,000MW deal
Strong indications emerged Wednesday that the Federal Government may rely on the yet to be spent $1.66bn secured by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) from the World Bank and other multilateral financing agencies to deliver the recent power delivery agreement Siemens Group.
Recall that less than one month ago, the Federal President Muhammadu Buhari and the chairman of the German technology group had sealed a power deal that will see the company deliver not less than 25,000MW by 2025, two years after his exit from office.
Otherwise, on July 22, 2019, the Federal Government and Siemens signed a Letter of Agreement on the Nigeria Electrification Roadmap which resulted from the meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, on August 31, 2018 in Abuja. President Buhari said at the signing ceremony that it was evident that more work needed to be done to upgrade the transmission and distribution system, adding that the government was initially reluctant to intervene as the distribution sector had already been privatised.
Though the government was economical with words on the cost of the six-year project, industry analysts say with the quantum of work needed to be done, the scheme may gulp as high as N1.15tn.
However, the Technical and Commercial Proposal, Business Hilights gathered that the three-phase Nigerian electrification project which aims to achieve 25,000 megawatts of electricity in the country by 2025 will require more than N1.15tn to deliver.
Though the TCN had stated that the $1.66bn was originally raised for the expansion of the national power grid, there are moves to divert the money to the Siemens project for speedy delivery.
