Tunde Bakare
President Bola Tinubu has acknowledged securing a $1.1 billion fund from the African Development Bank (AfDB) saying the initiative aims at providing electricity for 5 million people by the end of 2026.
Tinubu also stated that the AfDB’s $200 million in the Nigeria Electrification Project will provide electricity for 500,000 people by the end of 2025.
According to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President, (Information & Strategy), the president made this known in a speech presented by Adebayo Adelabu, Minister of Power, at the just concluded two-day Mission 300 Africa Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
“Tinubu acknowledged AfDB’s $1.1 billion, expected to provide electricity for 5 million people by the end of 2026, while its $200 million in the Nigeria Electrification Project will provide electricity for 500,000 people by the end of 2025.
“This is an ambitious goal, but we can achieve it together,” Tinubu said. “As Nigeria’s President, I am committed to making energy access a top priority.”
The AfDB, through Kevin Kariuki, Vice President, Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth Complex, first announced support of Nigeria’s power sector with $1 billion in May 2024 at the Eight Africa Energy MarketPlace (AEMP) Forum in Abuja.
Kariuki said: “We will be shortly seeking board approval for a one billion dollar policy-based operation (PBO) with a significant energy component.
“This is aimed at supporting the ongoing power sector reforms triggered by the new Electricity Act. The timing of the AEMP and the proposed policy-based lending focused on the energy sector is, therefore, not coincidental.
“We will finance the policy recommendations to actualise the expected outcomes from the National Integrated Electricity Policy and Strategic Implementation Plan.”
Kariuki said at the event that the project entailed the construction of 500 Kilometres of transmission lines and four substations with a capacity of over 1000 Mega Volt Ampere (MVA).
Meanwhile, the president of Nigeria is also expecting to get the planned $1.2 billion AfDB investment in the Nigeria Desert to Power programme and facility for the Nigeria-Grid Battery Energy Storage System.
“We also look forward to the AfDB’s planned $700 million investment in the Nigeria Desert to Power programme and its planned $500 million facility for the Nigeria-Grid Battery Energy Storage System, which will provide electricity for an additional two million people,” Tinubu said.
“We have equally begun making plans to ensure the effectiveness of the World Bank’s $750 million support for expanding Nigeria’s distributed energy access via mini-grids and standalone solar systems that will provide access to power to 16.2 million people,” he added.
President Tinubu thanked Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, and Akinwunmi Adesina of AfDB for their transformative vision, which he said “will light up and power Africa.”
He also applauded the contributions of the UN Sustainable Energy For All, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Global Energy Alliance for Development.
“As we all know, Africa is rich in energy resources, yet millions of our citizens still lack access to reliable and affordable energy.
“This situation is unacceptable. It is our responsibility to take collective action to change this narrative,” Tinubu said.
Following the reading of the Declaration, leaders from Nigeria, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Tanzania, and Zambia signed the document.
Through the Declaration, the leaders from the 12 countries expressed their commitment to ensuring electricity access for their citizens in the next five years.
The 12 nations plan to achieve the goal through National Energy Compacts, which identify specific policy measures to address constraints across their energy sector and set targets based on their unique context.