Yemisi Izuora
Black Rhino Group a portfolio company of Blackstone Energy and Dangote Industries have confirmed that they are investing a total amount of US$10bn in electricity projects in Nigeria with a special emphasis on renewable energy, transmission and pipeline projects.
Under the arrangement Black Rhino Group will contribute US$5bn while Dangote Industries is to contribute the remaining US$5bn towards the construction of a coal power plant and a solar energy project in Kano.
The coal project and the solar power project will produce about 1,000MW and 100MW respectively.
The two partners will as well execute a gas pipeline project from Akwa Ibom to South west Nigeria, a region where Dangote Industries are focused.
The gas project from the South East to Western Nigeria will stretch all the way to Ghana addressing the energy needs of industries within the region, particularly those under the Dangote group.
Meanwhile, Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote group, has said his conglomerate should be selling foreign exchange to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) by 2020.
Dangote, also said the problem with Nigeria should not be blamed on oil, seeing that oil traded at $9 per barrel in 1998.
Speaking at The Nigeria Summit hosted by The Economist, Dangote said, “We are looking at a situation that by 2020 we are the one selling FX to CBN. Our projects are mainly import substitution. We are working to be self-sufficient to grow about a million tonnes of rice over the next five years,” he said.
“Our gas project would have our gas pipelines on the sea bed.
The output should be able to provide about 12,000MW power. We see a lot of transformation when we are done with most of our projects by 2018.
“We have 15 countries in the ECOWAS community that is duty-free. Export market is big and profitable if you have capacity.
Players in the manufacturing should be encouraged to export if they have the capacity. We must also meet local consumption.”
“Diversification of the economy should be given priority, if we do not do it now, maybe we never will. People sometimes underestimate the economy of Nigeria by simply looking at the FX situation. “Lower oil prices does not spell doom. In 1998 oil price fell to $9.
There are opportunities in every ‘crisis’ situation. Once oil gets back to $80, we forget about diversifying the economy. Now is the time to diversify the economy.”