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FG renews partnership with Germany on energy

By on October 24, 2013

The Federal Government on Tuesday renewed the Nigeria-German Energy Partnership agreement for the extension of bilateral relation between both countries.

The bilateral relation, which resulted from a memorandum of understanding signed by both countries in 2008, was extended to another five years.

The decision to renew the agreement was reached after a two-day meeting between the Federal Government and a delegation from Germany in Abuja.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Mr. Godknows Igali, who signed for the country, said the extension became necessary after a careful review of the achievements of the cooperation in the last five years.

According to him, over 19 states have keyed into the initiative.

He called for more private sector participation in the development of renewable energy in Nigeria.

The leader of the German team, who is also his country’s State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister, Prof. Harald Braun, said the partnership’s target was to generate 500MW of power from solar energy alone within the next five years.

He noted that several areas had been identified for development, stressing that the partnership agreement had taken a holistic approach to power generation in the last five years.

“We had focus on renewables with large hydro rehabilitation and capacity support to Nigerians. 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,” he said

Braun said the first set of projects carried out by the Germans had been completed and included the grid connect installed to allow for evacuation and the Geregu extension.

According to him, the project has added 700MW to the national grid.

Igali explained that the partnership involved a variety of projects with the dual objectives of arresting the severe power shortage in the country and contributing towards energy security for Germany.

He said completion of the projects under the partnership would add 6,500MW of electricity to the national grid.

 

 

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