President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has today performed the ground breaking ceremony of the first phase of the 1,350 megawatts (MW) Gwagwalada Independent Power Project (GIPP) in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory on Friday, August 4, 2023.
According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, the project is in phases and the first phase which was commissioned today by the president is 350 MW capacity.
The project is jointly funded by the NNPC and its strategic partners – General Electric and the China Machinery Engineering Corp (CMEC) with a combination of a Debt-Equity sharing ratio of 70:30.
“The 350mw GIPP phase 1 of the entire project is extremely necessary and commendable for the economic growth of our country,” said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the groundbreaking ceremony.
According to the president, the groundbreaking is highly significant to the nation as it marks the first bold step in his administration’s concerted effort to establish a strong and vibrant energy sector that will drive the economy.
“Energy is the most important discovery for humanity in the last 1000 years,” he said. “There is no life without power. We need the energy.”
He said the project will have a multiplier effect on economic opportunities in the country and drive his renewed hope agenda.
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“During my campaign, I made commitments to Nigerians to make the provision of stable electricity a priority of this government to use all available energy resources to increase power generation beyond the current installed capacity of just 12,000mw to strengthen the integrity of our transmission infrastructure and ensure that all distribution bottlenecks are removed.
He said that Nigeria cannot become a productive economy unless things are done efficiently.
“Nigeria cannot become a productive and industrialised economy unless we can generate, transmit and distribute reliable electricity.
“To accelerate our economic growth, we must remove every obstacle on our way to progress. That this project is taking off so early in the lifetime of this administration should serve as a notice to the residents of Abuja and indeed to all Nigerians of our determination to bring positive change to this nation,” he said.
In addition, the president said the compressed natural gas agreement signed yesterday between the NNPC and NIPCO is a sign of good things to come.
“This administration is poised to address all power value chain challenges and reduce power related hardship experienced by nigerians
“Taking advantage of the global declaration that gas is a transitional fuel as well as enabling provision of the Petroleum Industry Act which attracts greater investment, we will eradicate power related problems.”
The president urged stakeholders in the power sector to work together with the NNPC towards a common goal
The GIPP project, according to the NNPC, has a combined cycle of three powertrain blocks of 4500 megawatts (MW) each, two gas turbines, two heat recovery and steam generators, 1 steam turbine and can generate 10.3m MW per hour of electricity.
