The recently signed agreement to strengthen Nigeria’s power grid and distribution networks would be financed by German Export Credit Agency (ECA) and others, says Onyeche Tifase, managing director/CEO, Siemens Limited Nigeria, in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay.
The power grid and distribution network upgrade involves Siemens Nigeria’s parent body, Siemens AG, and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
According to Tifase, once the financing is secured, the company will enter into a firm cooperation with the government, and Siemens expects that a lot of planning and efforts already in place will ensure the resources – power equipment, which have been produced, are delivered
for immediate roll out of the plans developed for the project.
She stated that the conversation around the projects was kick-started after the visit of the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, to Nigeria, stating that it had now become government-to-government initiative, which would see the ECA playing a very prominent role in financing
the project.
“The ECA would be one of those agencies financing the initiative, so whatever other credit instruments are required we would secure as we go along. But in the initial phase we
see a bulk of it coming from the German Export Credit Agency (ECA),” she said.
The Siemens boss, who dismissed the report that a particular figure had been arrived at as regards the financing of the project, said: “Exactly where we are now is to sign implementation agreement, which will give us the platform to start engaging more intensively to achieve financial clause that would lead essentially to contractual agreement with the government to get this project delivered.”
What they would be doing over the next four months, she said, would be structuring the financing and ensuring that all the capacities required are in place, whether it is local or international.
The other things the company will be doing are to direct it efforts towards ensuring that the studies carried out are executed so that in a few months it will be able to have a better view of all those issues involved in Phase II.
For Phase I, she explained that Siemens was already clear about where it was headed and what
needed to be done, which was why the implementation agreement basically provided the platform for the execution of Phase II.
“So, we are working out what is coming into a firmed cooperation with the government,” she said. On the benefits that may be accruing to Nigeria if the projects are successfully carried out, she said the company was also supporting the project with a very robust vocational training concept, which would eventually be delivered with the cooperation of the German Government.
Certain schools in Germany, she said, now deliver vocational training for apprentices that can
work in the power sector and other sectors of the economy.
The intension of the vocational training is to create thousands of jobs for young qualified and highly skilled young Nigerians. “Our Global CEO, Jeo Kaeser, spoke about the impact that such
training has had on the Egyptian economy.
It is a game changer in the Egyptian economy and game changer for the Egyptians themselves, because it offers Small and Medium Scale Entrepreneurs a lot of opportunities. They have excess
capacity, which they can export to other countries,” she said.
