Yemisi Izuora
Efforts of government to bridge infrastructure gap in critical sectors like the power sector, road and agriculture is gaining support of Development Agencies, as the
French Development Agency (AFD) a development finance institution 100 per cent held by the French government, has promised a €2 billion support to Nigeria.
He Agency is pushing to help Nigeria, address infrastructure projects in water, energy, transport and agriculture sectors.
It also involves financing related to the banking sector, governance and the cultural and creative industries.
AFD Country Director Nigeria, Pascal Grangereau, disclosed that the €2 billion was set aside to be sent on mainly road financing, water sector, improvement in electricity and agriculture.
He said €300 million was being spent on the Abuja Electricity Backup, a project in collaboration with Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) to improve electricity in Abuja.
Equally, a total of €200 million is being deployed to address the North West Electricity Backup.
On agriculture, he said vocational training is currently held across the nation to improve the skills of Nigerians.
According to him: “We intend to finance agricultural projects in five states, Benue, Imo and three other states to the tune of €50 million.”
He lamented that while it was endowed with reserves of crude oil and natural gas, Nigeria is characterised by power generation considered by the Nigerians themselves as not adequate.
He said concentrating more than half of the installed electricity capacity in West Africa, only half of which was harnessed by the country, implying a very low per capita consumption, limited access to electricity and frequent load shedding.
He further said: “The sector is of strategic importance for successive governments, with the launching in the 2000s of a vast reform, supported by a massive investment plan; which reform although supported by the donors is yet to achieve the expected results.
The project aims to strengthen the electricity transmission network, natural monopoly under the responsibility of the public company TCN, thus laying the foundations for a long-term partnership with TCN.”
