Nigeria to distribute ‘unutilised’ power to Togo, Burkina Faso

Nigeria will sell electricity to four West African countries through its electricity generation businesses (GenCos).

Sule Abdulaziz, interim managing director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and chairman of the West African Power Pool’s executive board, announced this at a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday.

Togo, Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin, and Niger Republic are planned to purchase power through the $570 million North Core Power Transmission Line, which is now under construction.

Nigeria already exports power to neighboring countries such as Benin Republic, Togo, and Niger under an international treaty.

According to Abdulaziz, the World Bank, the French Development Council, and the African Development Bank (AfDB)-funded North Core project is making progress and will be completed in about two years.

“The power we will be selling is the power that is not needed in Nigeria. These generators that are going to supply power to this transmission line are going to generate that power specifically for this project. So, it is unutilised power,” he said.

Abdulaziz also stated that the country expects additional generators to participate in the energy export for the 875-kilometer 330-kilovolt transmission line that will run through the four countries from Nigeria.

“In addition, there are some communities that are under the line route, about 611 of them will be getting power so that there won’t be just a transmission line passing without impact,” he said.

He expressed confidence that the initiative will create jobs while also generating revenue for Nigeria (forex).

“Nigeria has the greatest advantage among these countries because the electricity is going to be exported from Nigerian GenCos, ” Abdulaziz said.

“So from that, the revenue is going to be enhanced and a lot of people will be employed in Nigeria.”

“The cost is roughly $570 million,” WAPP secretary-general Siengui Appolinaire Ki said. “Part of the investment in each country is sponsored by the government, and they are backed by donors, and Nigeria is taking its own.”

He stated that the financial deal was complete and that the participating countries were awaiting payment.

“However, the donor agencies had said they needed a power purchase agreement (PPA) between the buying and the selling countries to be executed before releasing the fund,” he added.

“So, we will be addressing the ministers on this, so they can talk to the donors to remove this condition for disbursing the fund and let’s go on with the implementation.”