The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo has assured a visiting trade and investment delegation from South Africa, that Nigeria’s fledging power sector still offers a lot of business opportunities to South-Africa.
Prof. Nebo also assured the South Africans that there are more opportunities in power generation though they may be hidden due to the on-going privatization.
The Minister told his visitors that Transmission, metering and even manufacturing of parts like circuit breakers, cables, power lines and switches, require investment from South Africa.
Another area of interest, he hinted, is renewable energy – solar, biomass and wind, “our doors are open, we have vast areas of communities that are far from the national grid”.
According to the Minister, Nigeria is eager to learn from South Africa as it has a robust per capital power supply status with 43 million people and 40,000MW. “South African is far ahead of Nigeria with over 160 million people and power generation of less than 5,000MW.
The implication of this is “that Nigeria will need to generate 40 times more power to meet up the South Africans”, the Power Minister said.
He further stated that with the privatisation of the sector, the new owners will require partnership, “we also want to explore our abundant coal reserves, South Africa can avail us with the knowledge of using clean coal technology …. We need to reiterate that we are prepared to sign MoU with South-Africa, we want to tap from your experience to energize our economy”.
Recalling the days preceding the emergence of majority rule in South-Africa, Professor Nebo said Nigeria was there to ensure political freedom for South-Africans.
We are desirous of doing business with South-Africa, “the telecommunication giant MTN, Shoprite and other South African companies are doing well here, we want more of them in the power sector too”
Also at the event, the Permanent Secretary (Power) Ambassador Godknows Igali said Nigeria wants to see more MTN and Shoprite companies in the Power sector, just as he promised to bring-on-board new owners of Nigeria’s power assets, so that they can explore partnerships that would be mutually beneficial.
Speaking earlier, the leader of the South African delegation and the Deputy Minister for Trade and Investment, Ms. Elizabeth Thabethe said that President Jacob Zuma’s priority is to develop infrastructure through partnership with other African countries.
She said energy as an enabler for economic growth is the focus of the group, stressing that Nigeria as a strategic partner of South Africa will help fast track the realization of Pan-African dream of its Government.
The delegation was accompanied on the visit by South Africa’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Lulu Louis Mnguni.
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