24 October 2013, Abuja – The Nigerian-German Energy Partnership, NGEP, has renewed agreement to extend its bilateral relations for development of energy across the country, with a target of adding 500 megawatts, mw, to the nation’s power generation capacity within five years.
The bilateral relations, which resulted from a Memoradum of Understanding (MoU) signed by both governments in 2008, was extended to another five years, after a two day meeting between Nigerian and German delegation in Abuja.
The partnership consists of a variety of projects with the objective of addressing Nigeria’s power shortages while contributing towards energy security for Germany. Completion of projects under the partnership is expected to add a total of 6,500mw to the national grid.
Speaking during the signing of the MoU extension, Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali, who signed on behalf of the federal government, said the extension became necessary after a careful review of the achievements of the cooperation in the last five years.
He explained that over 19 States have already keyed into the programme, and stressed the need to encourage more private sector participation in development of renewable energy.
Leader of the German delegation, State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister of Germany, Prof. Harald Braun, said the NGEP is targeting the generation of 500MW of power from solar energy alone within the next five years.
He said, “we had focus on renewables with large Hydro rehabilitation and capacity support to the Nigerian people. We have the solar map of the country. The meeting had full content and we intend to generate 500MW of electricity from solar within the next five years.”
The projects envisaged include renewable, gas, light crude and coal projects while the need to pursue technical audits of all existing power plants to determine those to be repaired, upgraded or decommissioned have been identified by the partnership.
Enhancing vocational training and professional development is also of critical interest to the partnership with a view to ensuring sustainability of the investment in infrastructure; the funding will be borne by the partnership.
Speaking at the event the Secretary, National Energy Council, Ibrahim Njiddah, disclosed that the German government has offered to provide electricity for four Nigerian universities which is part of the council’s Renewable Energy Programme sponsored by the German government.
According to him 25MW of electricity would be provided to the selected universities under the project. The benefiting universities include the University of Ibadan, Modibbo Adama University of Technology Yola, Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto and the Federal University, Otuoke, Bayelsa.
– Leadership