- Minister of Power noted that the new projects would strengthen electricity transmission.
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has endorsed projects to improve the power supply in the country. This statement was announced by the Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, in a briefing to the State House correspondents. On Wednesday, FEC had a meeting presided by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa.
According to the minister, the projects are aimed at strengthening the capacity of the Transmission Company of Nigeria(TCN) and shoring up the power supply in the country. “I presented two memos to council has been approved; the first memo council approved the award of contract for design supply and installation of 1x60MBA, 132×33 kV transmission substation with associated 4×132 kV line bay extension at Hong local government and Adamawa in the sum of ₦6.5 billion consisting of two components one is offshore and onshore.
“The offshore is 6.9 million dollars, and the onshore is ₦3.3 billion at the CBN prevailing exchange rate and 7.5 per cent VAT; the delivery period is 24 months. This seeks to raise the capacity of the supply around that area, and it’s going to affect so many towns and villages; there’s a very important local government headquarters around that area.
The minister said that the second memo also was to procure power transformers and associated spare parts for TCN to be deployed to six locations.
“One is to Aiyede in Oyo; Offshore component 1.8 billion dollars, the onshore is ₦98 million. The second one is Gusau in Zamfara; the third one is Kankia in Katsina state; the next one is Minna, Niger; then the fifth one is to Okearo in Ogun. The sixth one is in Damaturu, Yobe; this one is very peculiar because as you may be aware, for over one year, Maiduguri has not been enjoying full electricity. We were able to take electricity supply through an old line of 33 kV, which we repaired and restored and were able to take 10 megawatts to Maiduguri over 130 kilometres on a 33 single circuit.”