President Bola Tinubu and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz presided over the further signing of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) agreement between Nigeria and Germany.
According to Adebayo Adelabu, Nigeria’s Minister of Power, the agreement which was signed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) was designed to ultimately add 12,000mw of electricity to the national grid.
The managing director of the Federal Government of Nigeria Power Company, Kenny Anuge signed for Nigeria, while Nadja Haakansson, the Managing Director (Africa) Siemens AG, signed on behalf of Germany.
Speaking on the agreement, Anue harped on the commitment of President Tinubu to the development of power infrastructure, noting that he had reiterated time and again that infrastructure development is critical to the ongoing reforms.
He affirmed that electricity and financing are at the heart of the economic reform agenda of the administration, adding that the PPI by design encapsulates both elements with the support of partners, Siemens Energy and the financiers that are backed by the German government.
Anuge noted: “Mr. President, with your strong and dynamic leadership through the Minister of power, now we seek to exploit or expedite what was already a worthwhile programme in the presidential power initiative through this accelerated agreement today.
“Some of the things that have been achieved, erstwhile by the federal government, have been the establishment of the FGN Power Company as the special purpose vehicle for the implementation of the project.”
He said the German government has nominated the mandated lead arrangers and financiers, adding that Siemens energy has also successfully delivered 10 units of power transformers and 10 units of mobile substations.
In his remarks, Joe Kaeser, chairman of Siemens Energy Supervisory Board, traced the history of the initial agreement to the Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2018, expressing delight that both parties have now been able to drive the process forward.
He said: “I’m particularly happy to be here tonight to witness the signing of the Presidential Initiative for Power because in 2018 the former President Buhari wanted me to come to Abuja and explain to him what we did in Egypt.
“And I said Mr. President, Egypt has 80 million (people) and we could use 14 gigawatts and Nigeria has 200 million people. So, we could actually need more gigawatts.
“Now, after five years, I’m really happy that this agreement has the spirit of supplying energy to the greater good of Nigerian people has been taken to a new level. Thank you very much for doing that. And as we say in Germany, good things take time as we have seen tonight.”
Speaking on the project, Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, in his remarks, said the target of the PPI is to add 12,000mw of electricity to the national grid.
He said with the signing on Friday, the process will now proceed apace to ensure constant supply of electricity to Nigerians.
He said: “Of course, we knew that there were a lot of delays between 2018 and now that we have not really made significant achievements in terms of proceeding with the contract signed in 2018 because of a lot of factors, some were natural, some human, some were processes.
