Nigeria and Germany have strengthened their bilateral relations with the signing of the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) agreement which aims to add 12,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the Nigeria national grid.
The historic partnership was fostered at the ongoing COP28 summit in Dubai on Friday.
Joe Kaeser, the Chairman of Siemens Energy Supervisory Board, said the PPI which was first conceived during the last administration in 2018, will take Nigeria energy supply to its people “to a new level.”
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.”
The Minister Power, Dr Adebayo Adelabu, acknowledged that COVID-19 pandemic was a major factor why the deal was stalled for five years.
Adelabu said 10 transformers and 10 power mobile substations have been delivered to Nigeria by Siemens.
He said: “We are very happy that we are able to sign this agreement tonight. And in the next couple of months, we will witness a lot of activities on the presidential power initiatives project.
“The original agreement we had was for $2.3 billion. But what we have is up to date, just in region of $60 million, which has to do with the importation of the 10 transformers and the 10 power mobile substations, which Siemens have delivered to the country.
“They have been commissioned and we are in the presence of installation of these transformers. So far, it has cost us $60 million.”
The signing ceremony was witnessed by high-level officials including Kenny Anue, Managing Director, Federal Government of Nigeria Power Company, Nadja Haakansson, Managing Director (Africa), Siemens AG, Chief Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN), Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development.
Others are Dr Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, Balarabe Lawal, Minister of Environment, Said Alkali, Minister of Transportation, Dr. Dorris Anite, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, and Abubakar Kyari, Minister of Agriculture.
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