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Nigeria seeks $5.2bn from World Bank for its power sector

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Senate ‎says power companies bankrupt

Relief is on the way for Nigerian electricity consumers as the Federal Government has concluded plans to obtain a total of $5.2bn from the World Bank to improve on power generation, transmission and distribution in the country.

The loan is said to be different from the pending $1.2 billion facility for the 2016 budget deficit, and it will have a life span of 25 years for repayment.

It was learnt that the facility will be drawn from the various arms of the bank, including the World Bank’s private-sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is planning $1.3bn direct investments through the power generation and distribution firms in Nigeria.

According to a foreign online portal, another unit to be used for the loan is the World Bank’s political-risk insurer, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency(MIGA), which is to provide equity and debt of $1.4bn for gas and solar power programmes.

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There will also be $2.5bn that the institution has approved with which Nigeria will use to expand power transmission capacity and increase access to electricity in rural areas.

Confirming this development, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, said the disbursements with the World Bank are being worked out to start from around June or July this year (2017).

“Nigeria is asking the lender to bring forward the timetables for the releases of the facility because we want to see results before next year,” he added.

It is reported that Africa’s most populous nation has not been able to improve on its power generation capacity beyond 4,000 megawatts, compared with an average peak generation of about 35,000 megawatts in South Africa, with a population that is less than a third of the size of Nigeria’s 170 million people.

 

 

 

 

 

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0 Comments

  1. seyi jelili

    May 10, 2017 at 2:19 pm

    But I thought we have pledged not to borrow money again from World Bank and IMF, so why are we resorting to them again to stabilize our power supply.

    • yanju omotodun

      May 11, 2017 at 6:08 am

      World Bank was not included, it’s IMF we said we won’t borrow from again due to their stringent policies

      • Joy Madu

        May 11, 2017 at 6:22 am

        Nija with borrow how i wish i don’t belong to this country of hardship

  2. Balarabe musa

    May 10, 2017 at 4:33 pm

    By the time Baba buhari will be leaving the government, we would be proud of nothing less than 7500 megawatts, I am sure of this.

    • Animashaun Ayodeji

      May 10, 2017 at 5:20 pm

      Your name is musa which is otherwise known as dumb. I can see why your thinking is dumb. Not only 7500 megawatts, it is 1 million megawatts

    • yanju omotodun

      May 11, 2017 at 6:09 am

      Dream in the grave

  3. Anita Kingsley

    May 10, 2017 at 5:32 pm

    I need a countrybthat corruption has eaten deep into the hearts of our leaders, if we took a loan of $1tn from anywhere, the money will still not show, the corrupt leaders will pocket the larger share of the money.

  4. Agbor Chris

    May 10, 2017 at 5:37 pm

    This is a good one, let us hope that before ghe beginning of 2019, Nigeria’s power would have increased to impressive state. Now that there’s going to be funds available, Fasola will work better.

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