President Muhammadu Buhari says his regime will spend $1.9 billion to tackle Nigeria’s epileptic electricity supply from 5,000 megawatts to 7,000 megawatts.

This followed the Federal Executive Council’s approval of $1.9 billion to procure equipment for the nation’s power sector to boost power supply across the country through the Presidential Power Initiative.

”With this particular approval, we’ll be able to expand from the current capacity of 5000 megawatts to 7000 megawatts,” stated the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Wednesday while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the council meeting, presided over by Mr Buhari.

”Today, the Ministry of Power and the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning presented two joint memos regarding the Presidential Power Initiative,” said Ms Ahmed.

“The first memo that we presented to council was seeking council’s approval for the engagement of Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) as transaction advisors with third-party consultants for the implementation of the Presidential Power Initiative (phase one).

”So, the AFC, the transaction advisors, their fee is $800,000 and the transaction period is 18 months, and this includes their reimbursable expenses.

”The second component is the engagement of third party consultants, and this includes local as well as international legal advisory firms, environmental and social impact assessment consultants, security consultants, insurance advisors, as well as tax and model auditor.

“These parties are collectively engaged in the sum of $1,116,312.45. The objective of the PPI project is to modernize and upgrade power transmission and distribution infrastructure in Nigeria.”

The minister highlighted that part of the money will be used to procure mobile equipment for the transmission of power across the country.

“The second approval that we got from the council today is still relating to the PPI power project, and the memo was seeking the approval of council for the award of contracts for the procurement of mobile equipment for the transmission power component of the project,” Ms Ahmed further explained. “So, the procurement of 10 mobile equipment and 10 transformers was approved.”

The total cost of the procurement is €62,949,447. She pointed out that the focus was to “very quickly enhance the power availability and capacity in the country.

(NAN)