TCN secures $1.6 billion to boost power sector

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), has confirmed it received about $1.661 billion worth of investments from international donors to boost power supply in the country.

TCN Managing Director, Mr. Usman Mohammed who disclosed this on Thursday, in Abuja, during the company’s quarterly news conference, said the company had canvassed for a significant amount of funding to strengthen the power supply system under critical investment Programme.

“As at today, the amount we have raised from multi-lateral donors has risen to 1.661 billion dollars to execute some power projects in the country. These projects include the Abuja Wheeling Scheme that will bring five sub-stations and bring a new supply route to the territory,” he said.

“The new route will be from Lafia to Abuja with 330 Kilo Volt (KV) line and two 330KV sub-stations in Abuja and put addition three numbers 132 KV sub-stations in the territory.’’

He noted that contracts for the project had been signed and divided into 6 slots. According to him, 10 contractors had been pre-qualified for the project.

The MD, according to Nairametrics also stated that the transmission company has also recovered 775 power equipment containers out of the 800 containers abandoned at the ports owing to tariffs. He, however, noted that two power equipment containers have been declared missing while two are empty.

“We discovered that two containers were missing, and we have reported to the police and they are investigating the matter.

Although the contents or the value of the missing containers were not disclosed, Mohammed pledged to work with his team to recover the containers. He said the transmission company will recover about 2,000mw to 3,000mw with the present upgrade of the firm’s equipment, as the grid will automatically shift from 8,000 MW to at least 10,000 MW.

The TCN boss also revealed that the firm had forcefully taken over some contracts and that those contracts are already at their completion stages.

Mr Mohammed regretted, however that despite the massive investment recorded by the TCN, the distribution companies (DisCos) are yet to equal it with a proportional upgrade of their equipment. He, therefore, attributed this to the constant collapses in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.