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FG to close metering gap
- Targets an additional 10,000MW to the grid
- Development partners to commit about $5 billion in funding
Presidential Adviser on Infrastructure, Ahmed Zakari has said the Federal Government plans to cover the metering gap and add an additional 10,000MW capacity to the national grid over the next two years. Speaking on the Arise Tv, Zakari said the FG along with its development partners will commit at least $5 billion in funding to the electricity sector.
Zakari acknowledged President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to fix the transmission and distribution bottlenecks. He noted the interventions in the sector that are currently ongoing in the transmission and distribution subsectors. The FG has provided funding for the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) resulting in the procurement and installations of meters for consumers which is currently ongoing nationwide. ”Thus far, that phase 0 is about a million meters. Phase 1 will be 4 million meters. We have mopped up all the available meters. About 600,000 have been delivered to the Distribution Companies (Discos) and about 400,000 plus have already been installed” he stated.
For the transmission sub-sector, the FG is currently considering the best strategy for the unbundling and commercialisation of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). Speaking on the unbundling of the TCN, Zakari noted that the TCN will be unbundled before a concession agreement is signed. The FG has partnered with the World Bank to provide funding for TCN through, the Transmission Rehabilitation Expansion Programme (TREP).