Eunice Imo Kalu
Lagos — The minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Maitama Tuggar, has revealed that Nigeria’s electricity supply will improve by the first half of 2024, following the Siemens gas agreement between Germany and Nigeria.
The minister, who is part of the President Tinubu’s team at the G20 Compact with Africa Economic Conference in Germany, spoke virtually on Channels ‘Television’s Politics Today program’, asserted that there would be remarkable improvement in electricity supply come next year.
“In the coming year by the first half of next year (2024), there will be a remarkable improvement in the electricity supply in Nigeria,” he said, disclosing that the Siemens deal is “fully back”.
It is recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari, had promised to expand Nigeria’s electricity capacity, which is now at 4,000 Megawatts, MW, to 25,000 MW by 2025, when he signed the deal with Siemens Energy in Germany under the Presidential Power Initiative. However, the project has not yet been completed.
He cited that the fresh gas deal between Nigeria and Germany is a win-win.
“The fact that we are exporting gas to Germany, or we intend to do that does not mean that we are depriving Nigeria’s domestic gas needs; that will be fulfilled as well but you also need the revenue that would accrue from such exports to invest further in taking electricity and gas to other parts of Nigeria. So, it’s all interconnected and one does not stop the other from happening,” Tugger said.
The minister proceeded to express that after the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano project, which is in progress, is finished, the supply of energy will improve.
