U.S. investors target 10,000 megawatts in Nigeria

[TGD]

 A TRADE delegation from the United States (U.S.) was in Nigeria yesterday to explore investment potential in the nation's power sector.

At an intensive meeting with the Minister of Power in Abuja, the General Electric of U.S. declared its plan to take stake in the power sector. Essentially, the company declared that it would, in partnership with the private sector investors and the Nigerian government, generate about 10,000 megawatts in the country.

Members of the delegation include the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which assured of funding for projects concluded and sealed for execution. Many of the companies on the delegation expressed strong desire to participate in off grid power generation while some expressed interest in taking advantage of the privatisation process to take over a number of the generation companies in Nigeria.

The delegation, led by the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State (African Bureau), Ambassador Bill Fitzergerald is on energy trade mission to Mozambique, Tanzania, Nigeria and Ghana to look at potential investment projects with the aim of enhancing the countries' ability to generate electric power.

"The basic objective of the trade mission is to make significant progress on increasing U.S. private-sector investment in power infrastructure projects that have the potential to increase overall development in these countries by significantly reducing the cost of doing business," Jim Wilson, senior coordinator for trade promotion and commercial policy in the Bureau of African Affairs said.

The trade mission's plan includes determining "if U.S. power developers would be able to invest in generating facilities and fuel supply that help address the needs in Africa for reliable and affordable electricity."

"Each country selected for this trade mission presents significant opportunities for investment in electric power. The four governments have all been taking measures to make the regulatory and legal environments in their nations more attractive to private investors," Wilson said.

According to him, the State Department established specific criteria for participation by potential private investors. "The companies needed to be in a position to move forward with investments in energy infrastructure in Africa, whether they be investments in the power-generation sector, which most of the companies are, or fuel supply, which is another important requirement for meeting the challenge of providing reliable, affordable electricity for Africa," he said.

Minister of Power stressed that a number of the enablers to protect the investments had been put in place.

"We have a regulatory environment, making sure that the environment is right for investment. The outcome is that we are getting expression of interest from all over the world. People are coming here from all over the world to invest in power and I am glad that some U.S. companies are involved in the bidding process. What we expect is that once we privatise these companies, we want to see them to be credit worthy so that they will be able to buy power from power producers."

The delegation yesterday visited President Goodluck Jonathan who said his administration had the political will to support investors and create an enabling environment for investment in Nigeria.



The Guardian