The Federal Government has announced plans to partner Egypt in the areas of technical support in the transmission and distribution of electricity in Nigeria.
The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, announced this during a meeting with the Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria, Ihad Awad, at the headquarters of the Federal Ministry of Power in Abuja.
Aliyu in a statement issued by the power ministry, stated the partnership would boost the development needs of both countries by improving electricity supply, including renewable energy in Nigeria and Egypt.
The statement read in part, “Aliyu further stated that the anticipated areas of cooperation between Egypt’s Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy and Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Power may include provision of technical support in transmission and distribution networks.”
Others include “smart-grid and the promotion of renewable energy system in the electricity sector both on-grid and off-grid.”
The minister told his guests that the Federal Government was committed to seeing that Nigerians received efficient power supply.
He informed the meeting that the government signed a power project deal with Siemens AG, a German- based firm in 2019 and that the deal brought together Nigeria’s Ministry of Power, Bureau of Public Enterprises and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Other participants in the deal, according to Aliyu, include the Transmission Company of Nigeria and electricity distribution companies.
He said the deal would deliver up to 25,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid in phases and expressed the Federal Government’s desire for more of such partners.
Responding, the Egyptian ambassador said Egypt and Nigeria would complement each other through the anticipated cooperation.
Awad said the Egyptian embassy and the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy were working for the realisation of a Memorandum of Understanding with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Power.
– Punch