Yemisi Izuora
The United States, US, has announced a $1billion (N500billion) investment in Nigeria’s power sector just a day after promising to lift the ban on sales of arms to the country.
The investment is coming under the platform of Power Africa, an initiative by the US government to light up Africa, according to the programme’s coordinator, Mr Andrew Herscowitz.
Herscowitz, said that the US was committed to strengthening the power sector in Nigeria and that America had already committed billions of dollars in funding the nation’s energy projects.
Power Africa initiative, was launched by former President, Barack Obama in 2013 to increase electricity access specifically aimed at adding more than 30,000 megawatts of cleaner, efficient energy development in sub-Saharan Africa.
The project would unlock the substantial wind, solar, hydro power, natural gas, biomass, and geothermal resources on the continent.
“Since Power Africa was launched, U.S. Trade Development Agency has committed approximately 6.5 million dollars in funding for 10 activities supporting Nigeria’s energy sector, which could leverage up to 2.7 billion dollars in investment.
“It has advanced 50 million dollars in financing from the Oversea Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to Lumos, a Nigeria-based solar energy company, to scale up it’s off grid solar power service to about 200,000 Nigerian homes and businesses.
“Power Africa has supported power companies in the country to the tune of 100 million dollars capital expenditure credit enhancement facility with a corresponding 6.5 million dollars in technical assistance and another 1.5 million dollars for limited commodity to turn around the DISCOs,” he said adding that in achieving the goals of the sector, there must be a functional distribution system, the main reason why the DISCOs, must be supported to work.