Electricity : World Bank $5bn Loan Facility to Boost Power Supply

Babatunde Fashola, Minister Of Power, Works and Housing,Nigeria

The Federal Government is seeking a loan of $5bn from the World Bank Group to boost power availability in Nigeria, investigation has shown.

The Board of Executive Directors of three arms of the World Bank approved the package of loans and guarantees supporting a series of energy projects to help boost independent power generation and ease crippling energy shortages in Nigeria.

Present at the April 25, 2017 meeting in Washington DC were the Minister for Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola; Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun; Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Steel and Metallurgy, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe; and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Power, Mr. Dan Asuquo.

The Director of Operations at the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, an arm of the World Bank Group, Sarvesh Suri, said a full range of instruments would be deployed to help the government mobilize investments directly from the private sector and through private sector guarantees.

The World Bank, International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency’s World Bank partial risk guarantees approved included $245m for the 459 Megawatt Azura Edo Power Plant near Benin City, Edo State; and $150m for the 533MW Qua Iboe plant in Ibeno, Akwa Ibom State. Both plants are gas-fired.

The Boards of the IFC and MIGA approved loans and hedging instruments worth $135m and guarantees of up to $659m for the Azura Edo project.

This is good news especially coming on the heels of the DISCOS planning to end estimated electricity billing, one of the major problems in the Electricity value chain tunnel.