The federal government of Nigeria this weekend signed a power purchasing agreement (PPA) with Kingline, a new power generation firm with Nigerian and South Korean interests, in a bid to bring an end to the lingering electric power issue in the West African nation.
The power project that will be located in Ondo state, south west of the country, is expected to inject 550 megawatts of electricity into the national grid.
According to the Managing Director of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, the project is a welcome development and “confirms our quest for power generation and government’s commitment to ensuring that all the structures required to attract and make investors comfortable are on the ground.”
The minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, had earlier advised industrialists, directors and other employers in the country not to panic or downsize their staff in the face of current power supply challenges.
He said the Federal Government has put a roadmap in place that would ensure progressive power supply.
Nigeria has tens of millions of people working in SMEs. Most of them work on a subsistence basis and live on less than $2 a day, making the warehouses, electricity access and machinery needed to improve efficiency unattainable.