FEC approves $197.3m loan for electrification, Lagos transport
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved $197.5m for the electrification project and Strategic Transport Master Plan for Lagos State.
The loans were approved in three memos presented by the ministry of Finance during yesterday’s FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja.
Finance minister, Zainab Ahmed who briefed newsmen on the loans, said $150m loan facility was approved from African Development Bank and
$50m loan from African Grow Together Fund to finance the Nigeria electrification project.
“Tbe project is a nationwide initiative to be implemented by the rural electrification agency. The project aligns with the strategy of federal government on electrifying rural community,” she said.
The minister said the project has four components, “first is solar hybrid minigrid for rural economic development, the second is productive appliances equipment for up-grid
communities and the third is energising education while the fourth component is institutional capacity building.”
She said about 500,000 people will be able to have access to electricity and that the maximum power that will be generated will be 76.5 megawatts, of which is 68,000 megawatts of solar.
She said eight universities will benefit from the scheme and about 20,000 small, micro, medium enterprises across different communities in the nation.
Another loan approved by the council was the north Core dorsal regional transmission project.
She said the intention was for the creation of regional power pull in the region of West Africa.
“The post project aims to connect Nigeria, Niger, Benin Republic, Togo, Burkina
Faso with a high voltage 330 kilowatts transmission line, to facilitate energy trade amongst participants.
“The project is in the total sum of $640 million out of which each of the four countries involved has a component. Nigeria has the smallest component in this pact which is a total loan of $27.3 million IADE facility, it is a concessionary loan. This is a loan that the four countries are taking together, the other three countries have concluded theirs, so this is one of the final stages for Nigeria to conclude its process,” she said.
She said the third load approval was $20m for the Lagos State Strategic Transport Master Plan.
“This facility is from the French Development Agency. The objective of the project is to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants of Lagos urban area and to promote urban development sitting by efficient and effective transport system. The project has two major components, first is to rehabilitate urban roads and the creation of minimum of eight bus corridors and the creation of two multi-model inter-changes at Marina and Mile 2. The second objective is to provide technical support for implementation and management.
“When completed, the project is expected to impact on 1.8 million inhabitants of Lagos State and accumulative 1.5 million users per day for inter-model inter-changes with about 620,000 boarding at Mile 2 and 480,000 boarding at Marina. Another estimated 630,000 boarding at QBS.