Power Plant situated in Niger State is expected to
fully take off with a scheduled sod turning
ceremony to be performed by President
Goodluck Jonathan today (Tuesday).
The Power plant which is valued at about N163
billion, is expected to be completed in 2018, and
is being constructed by China-based, CNEEC-
Sinohydro Consortium. The funding for the
project will be provided by the Federal
Government and the Exim Bank of China on the
ratio 25:75 percent respectively.
The project which was initiated as far back as
1982, when the feasibility studies were
conducted and submitted to government by a
United States firm, Chas T. Main International,
and later reviewed in 2008 by French firm,
Coyne et Bellier.
According to the chief representative of the
consortium in Nigeria, Mr. Ju Shiquan, who
spoke with journalists over the weekend in
Abuja, processes for the smooth take-off of work
at the hydro plant have been concluded, hence,
the official sod turning by President Jonathan.
Under the terms of the contract, Nigeria will
provide its counterpart funding contribution of
about $309 million. The Minister of State for
Power, Hajia Zainab Kuchi, during the contract
signing ceremony for the project early this year
revealed that the sum was already domiciled
within the ministry.
Kuchi had noted that the Ministry of Finance
was expected to finalise all the paper works to
activate the 75 percent funding from the Exim
Bank of China, from which work would begin at
the project site.
The project when completed is also expected to
generate revenues to offset the facility from
Exim Bank of China.
"The feasibility studies and engineering design
was reviewed in 2008 by Coyne et Bellier, and a
report which recommended that an installed
capacity of 700MW consisting of 4X175MW
plants units representing downward review of
the initial capacity of 950MW should be adopted,
the recommendation was accepted by the
ministry," Kuchi had said.
She also disclosed that the ministry had applied
and got a due process certificate of "no
objection" for the award of the contract to the
consortium from the Bureau of Public
Procurement (BPP) in October 2012 and
subsequently got approval for the project
commencement at the 44th meeting of the
Federal Executive Council (FEC).
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