Nigeria and Egypt Collaborate on Power Generation

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In the efforts to increase the generation and distribution of electricity in Nigeria, and in particular getting electricity to the rural communities in the country, the federal ministry of power is collaborating with Egypt. This, according to a statement signed by Bolaji Tunji, Special Adviser, Strategic Communications and Media Relations to the Minister, was made known recently in Abuja, during a meeting between the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu and the Egyptian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mohammed Fouad.

While commending the great strides recorded by Egypt in the energy sector, the minister said that Nigeria was willing to “(learn) from Egypt’s experience in energy generation, transmission, and distribution”. He also said that the success in Egypt led to the engagements with Siemens with a view towards stabilising Nigeria’s power sector. Egypt is the second largest producer of electricity in Africa, after South Africa.

Adelabu who said that his ministry has increased access to power in the 17 months said the determination of the current administration to ensure that power crisis becomes a thing of the past has gored it to collaborate with her north African country conscious of the fact that “Egypt has made remarkable strides in energy transformation,” while also confessing that Nigeria is “eager to collaborate and learn from your expertise.” That way, the minister said, the country would “ensure reliable, stable, and affordable energy access for all Nigerians”.

Interestingly, though Nigeria will benefit a great deal from the collaboration, the relationship will be a symbiotic one, as Egypt too believes that it has a lot to learn from Nigeria. Ambassador Fouad showed excitement on the success of Adelabu’s ministry in renewable energy, which he said Egypt stands to learn from. The ambassador, who said that Egypt was looking towards increasing the contribution of renewable energy to his country’s total energy to 42% from 14% by 2035, said he believes that his country has a lot to learn from Nigeria in this regard, judging by the exploits Nigeria has made in recent time.

Fouad said: “I want to commend you for the efforts you are putting into the power sector which is visible everywhere. Nigeria and Egypt had a Memorandum of Understanding about power projects. We should activate the MOU and maybe we can start by holding virtual meetings, talking to each other to see if there are areas where we can learn from each other, because power is an ambitious plan especially, when it comes to renewable energy.”

Adelabu told his guest that because of economic challenges Nigeria could not link most of the rural areas to the national grid. This development, according to him, made his ministry make use of renewable energy to power the rural areas. He said, “Many rural areas cannot be connected to the grid due to economic constraints, but we cannot neglect them. Through our renewable energy program, we are bridging this gap. We have secured significant investments, including $750 million from the World Bank’s DARES project and an additional $190 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), to support this initiative”.