Yemisi Izuora/Joseph Bakare
A consortium, Broad Spectrum Industrial Services, has raised €500 million to finance the proposed Calabar Deep Seaport project.
Other key projects initiated by the Cross River State Governor, Senator Ben Ayade, which attracted the interest of Broad Spectrum include the dual carriage super highway, modular refinery, cement factory, and agriculture.
Speakin in Calabar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Michael Havre said the amount neither represented a loan nor a grant but purely for project financing.
He said the project, which would be executed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement required only a 25 per cent bank guarantee from the state government.
Havre disclosed that a leading Nigerian bank has already agreed to look into the possibility of issuing the guarantee on behalf of Cross River.
According to him, I have spoken this morning (yesterday) to one of the banks, and it has agreed to issue a guarantee on your behalf. And from the details of what we have analysed, your involvement is going to be very minimal.
“I don’t need your money, what I just need you to do is get to your bank and give us a bank guarantee and we are good to go and that is why we are here. We are here to work with you to bring progress to Cross River.”
Governor Ayade while speaking clarified that the €500million was not a loan, stating that Cross River State was not going to incur any debts arising from the funding of the signature projects.
Ayade also revealed that the state has concluded plan to set up a hydro power plants that will generate about 90 megawatt of electricity.
The governor who disclosed this when he received some investors from China in his office in Calabar, hinted that the Kwa Falls was projected to generate 30mw, Agbokim 30mw while the canalization and Channelization from either Ikom, Calabar and Itigidi Rivers will generate 30mw, bringing the total output to 90mw.
According to him, We are happy because we understand the power generation mechanics and how it works. A lot of states that invested in gas turbines today have their hands burnt because it is always very difficult to sustain the turbines.
The huge gas supply per day at high running cost makes turbines more expensive to operate.
So if we go hydro, the water is free. It is obvious that we are taking the right path and we are lucky to have this team which is tested and proven with long history of successes as experts in the field.
Ayade opined that: “As a people and a state who understands the difficulty of gas powered turbines, we as a state decided to develop a culture that will insist on
hydropower.”
“The decision for hydro is specific. In spite of the fact that it has high cost of initial investment, the downstream over time will kneel out the initial cost operational cost and therefore, from longevity operational efficiency and sustainability, it is imperative that we have to go for hydro, more so we are a coastal state,” he reaffirms.
He added: “Our thinking is that, since we have opportunity to have about three locations where we can generate hydroelectricity, our requirement as a state is little. From our projections we shall be generating 90mw at the three locations, utilizing only 30 as a state and selling out the remaining 60mw to the federal government.”
In his remark, the Managing Director, Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation, Mr. Rao Jiangiang, stated: “With the warm reception accorded us by the state government and the people, we will swing into action by visiting the proposed sites to complete feasibility studies so as to actualize the dream in the shortest possible time,” just as he solicited collaboration from all the stakeholders.