EU to invest €37 million in Nigeria’s power sector

The European Union (EU) is set to invest €37 million in the Nigerian power sector.

Bolaji Tunji, special adviser on strategic communication and media relations to the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, disclosed this in a statement on Friday.

Tunji said this is apart from about 200 million grants invested in the sector since 2008.

He said this disclosure was made by the EU ambassador to Nigeria, Samuela Isopi, during a visit to Adelabu on Thursday.

According to the statement, Ms Isopi was accompanied by the new head of cooperation of the EU, DE Luca Massimo and the Programme Manager on Energy, Godfrey Ogbemudia.

During the visit, Tunji said Ms Isopi spoke on the EU’s various intervention programmes in the power sector noting that the current support would cover small hydropower, solar for health care facilities, rural electrification with isolated and interconnected mini-grids projects, and circular economy in power sector projects.

She said the projects will commence this year.

Ms Isopi, according to the statement, also used the opportunity to invite the minister to an upcoming launch of two projects funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) which will both be launched on 26 March.

In his response, Adelabu who received the ambassador in the company of his Chief Technical Advisor, Adedayo Olowoniyi, expressed appreciation to the EU for the support they have been giving to them while noting that more support is needed to address the enormous challenges in the sector.

He identified the liquidity issue as the main problem that the government is trying its best to resolve and said that the market will only be sustainable and run efficiently when there is a cost-reflective tariff in place.

Tunji added that the minister was very excited about EU programmes for the sector and confirmed the alignment of these programmes with the ministry’s strategy for the sector while promising to work with the EU on their programmes especially on small hydro and state electrification within the new act.

Nigeria has struggled with poor power supply for decades, a challenge that is estimated to cost businesses about $29 billion yearly, according to the World Bank.

The country has the lowest access to electricity globally, with about 92 million persons out of the country’s 200 million population lacking access to power, according to the Energy Progress Report 2022 released by Tracking SDG 7.