OpeOluwani Akintayo
25 October 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, on Monday, said it has raised the sum of $1.55billion from multi-lateral donor agencies for capacity building in line with its planned Transmission, Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme, TREP.
According to the Interim Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Usman Gur Mohammed, the loan was necessitated due to the issue of liquidity which is a major problem in the power sector.
“TCN has raised the sum of $1.55billion from multi-lateral donor agencies for the purpose of building capacity in line with its planned Transmission, Rehabilitation and Expansion Program”
“What TCN is getting from the market is 40%, and that’s barely good enough for it to pay salary and maintain its operation, so if we need to raise money to expand the grid, there is no other option than to go for multi-lateral donors”.
He also revealed that for the first time in Nigeria, TCN would put in place cord transmission lines in specific line routes such as from Shiroro to Kaduna.
The cord line, according to him, can carry a maximum of 2400megawatts.
Again, Mohammed informed that the company presently wheels out 7000MW, adding that it is determined to shift towards a robust transmission grid void of incessant system collapse as it targets 20, 000MW in the next four years.