22 March 2015, Abuja — Nigeria’s attempt to diversify her sources of electricity generation with the addition of coal-to-power has received a huge boost from the African Development Bank, AfDB, which has announced its commitment of a $200 million Partial Risk Guarantee, PRG, to support coal-to-power investments in the country.
AfDB’s decision to institute a $200 million PRG for coal-to-power production came directly against that of the World Bank which has overtime allegedly refused to lend financial support to investment in coal-to-power on the ground that it is a dirty source of energy and unhealthy to the environment.
Expressing its delight with the development, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc, otherwise known as the ‘bulk trader,’ described AfDB’s move as an African solution to an African challenge.
The Managing Director of NBET, Rumudaka Wonodi, told journalists shortly after the meeting of NBET’s board yesterday in Abuja, that AfDB recognised Africa’s challenges in growing her electricity and thus came up with such support to enable her produce electricity from various sources.
“It is welcome news and you know that we are also working with the World Bank for PRG to support the projects that we undertake, unfortunately, the World Bank is very reticent and they are not quite committed to giving support to coal because they deem it to be dirty fuel and not very good for the environment, however, the AfDB which is African, understands that Africa needs power from every source that it can, is supporting coal.
“We welcome that and they offered to provide it in support of some of the projects that we are working on like the Zuma energy if they feel that it is necessary and some of the other coal projects that we see around the country. It is a very welcome news and we appreciate that,” said Wonodi.
On the volume of the AfDB’s coal-to-power PRG, he He further noted: “I know that it is a number that is about $200 million.”
