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From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The $700 million West African Power Pool (WAPP) project which was stalled because of crises in Burkina Faso and Niger Republic will now be concluded next year.
Fielding questions from newsmen at the opening of the 7th meeting of the Joint Supervision Committee (JSC) of the WAPP North Core Project, the Secretary General of WAPP, Siengui Apollinaire KI, said that the project is aimed at transporting power from Nigeria to other landlocked countries of Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo, Benin Republic and other West African countries.
This, according to him, will bring business to the electricity- generating companies in Nigeria and make them more viable.
“This is what we have been doing for many years and we’ll continue until we reach the conclusion of the project and make electricity trading viable in the region.
“The secretary general also noted that the project is funded by donors like World Bank (the main funder of the project). World Bank has 60 per cent funding of the project. We have African Development Bank (AfDB), European Union (EU) and Nigeria funding a part of the project in Nigeria”he said, adding that the project which had a timeline of two years has now been extended to 2025 because of insecurity in some countries.
“When we started this project, we were thinking of two years to conclude the project but you know that the region has been confronted with security issues. There were wars in countries like Burkina Faso, Niger. This is a big challenge for us. We have to put in place strategies to be able to continue the project but this came with delay. So the project was delayed. Surely, we will not be able to conclude it in two years but we hope to make it in three years. That’s, rather than concluding it in 2024, we will be able to finish it in 2025” he said.
Earlier, the Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Dr Sule Ahmed Abdullaziz thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his immense interest in the project.
Abdullaziz expressed his gratitude for the Directors General of the generating companies for their vision and leadership in the project.
“To you, Directors-General of the national electricity companies and representatives of the ministries involved in the North Core Project, I want to emphasise the significant impact of your vision and leadership, which has greatly contributed and continues to contribute to the success of this ambitious project.
“Also, at the beginning of this year, I would like to wish each one of you present here a happy and prosperous new year. May the new year see our collaboration and strengthen us further for the realisation not only of this project but beyond, for all our common projects for regional energy integration” the MD noted.
