NBET may return $350m Eurobond to DMO over Afam’s project

The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) might give back to the Debt Management Office (DMO) the $350 million Eurobond proceed it got from the Federal Government in 2013,

as part of its capitalisation funds following increasing pressure on its management to sign off a part of it to fund the 240 megawatts (MW) Afam emergency power project the ministry of power is building.

Reliable sources, who are conversant with the development, said that the ministries of power and finance have continued to pile pressure on the agency to sign off the release of the fund by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), but it remained reluctant to do so because of the possible future implications.

To avoid the controversies that this may generate, the management of the NBET, it was learnt, may have rather opted to officially return the money to the DMO, and from which the ministries could take it.

According to reports, Afam fast power was procured by the power ministry with no known budgetary facility or statutory funding in place. Even at that, the ministry has also not publicly disclosed the total cost of the project.