World Bank, AfDB, EU, IDB, offer $1.55bn donor funds to TCN for  Nigeria’s power transmission lines upgrade

The transmission value chain of the Nigeria electricity industry, which has been plagued by dilapidated infrastructure, is on the verge of an upgrade and expansion as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has secured $1.55 billion from multilateral corporations, including the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), the Islamic Development Bank, and the European Union (EU).

Usman  Mohammed, Managing Director of TCN, who disclosed this to newsmen at the 18th monthly power sector stakeholders meeting hosted by Kano Electricity Distribution Company in Kano, said the funds would finance transmission expansion projects across the country.

He said that TCN had approached multilateral donors to raise significant finance to execute its numerous projects in the country, adding that the funds were sourced to realise TCN’s ambition of increasing transmission capacity by 20,000 megawatts in few years time.

Mohammed noted that the provision of the fund had resulted in the resuscitation of some projects that were hitherto abandoned like the Abuja transmission project, which is supposed to provide three sub-stations and provide another avenue for supply through Abuja from Lafia.

He said that the TCN was also collaborating with the state governments to resolve the problem of right of ways on transmission lines in the country.

“The payment of compensation to right of ways issue in Nigeria is a big problem, so in trying to expand the capacity of transmission lines, the right of ways is a big problem and that is why we are collaborating with state governments.“

He said that Kaduna Government had paid some compensation for some of the places TCN intended to construct transmission lines.

“We are working to expand the lines from Shiroro to Kaduna, and from Kaduna to Kano, and we are putting a code line that will carry 2,400 transmission capacity,” he said.

He said the company was also working to avoid stranded generation in the system.

“On growing the load and avoiding load rejection; we are working with Discos to see how to improve their capacity and we have appointed interface focal officers to help the DisCos pick more load.“

According to him, there is a stranded generation of about 2,000 mega watts in the grid, that stranded generation was detrimental to the development of investments in the generation aspect of the sector, hence the need to ensure the evacuation and distribution of  power generated to the consumers.