The federal government has revealed plans to partner the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) towards the implementation of its power transmission and expansion programme.

This is contained in a statement by the ministry of power on Tuesday in Abuja.

Spokesperson for the ministry, Oluseyi Odutayo, said that the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, had received a delegation from JICA in his office in Abuja.

Mr Aliyu said the programme was aimed at expanding the power transmission network to support the rapidly expanding industries in Lagos and Ogun states.

The minister said that transmission was a major stake of government which was targeted at raising operational capacity to an appreciable level particularly at areas where industries were rapidly expanding.

According to him, consultancy services for line route studies, and the environmental social management plan for the proposed JICA transmission projects in Lagos and Ogun states had been completed.

Mr Aliyu said that the transmission rehabilitation and expansion programme would be carried out by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

He, however, said that this would be through a loan of $200 million to be obtained from JICA.

The programme would provide about 203km high voltage transmission lines and six high voltage substations to cover five Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Ogun and one LGA in Lagos state.

Mr Aliyu noted that the programme would cover appropriately 200 communities.

Earlier, Sasaki Taigo, Senior Representative, JICA, Nigeria office, and team leader said that their mission was to confirm the content of the loan agreement.

(NAN)