Company raises $2billion for 20,000mw expansion

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has secured about $2 billion for the expansion of its transmission capacities up to 20,000 megawatts within the next three years.

This was disclosed by the company's Managing Director, Usman Gur Mohammed, at the power sector stakeholders' meeting in Kano presided by Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.

He revealed that some of the facilities under the company's care are outdated or inadequate to handle power generation, thereby causing hindrance to its optimum capacities.

While addressing questions from journalists, he revealed that the fund for expansion was raised from the World Bank, African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, Japanese Agency for International Cooperation (JAICA), and the European Union.

According to him, "Last week, we advertised for transformer capacities for Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, and Shiroro regions. These are part of the projects we have been able to raise from the multilateral regions, and the total capacity we are working towards achieving is 20,000 megawatts in the next three years.

"We have also restarted some projects that had not been doing well like the Abuja Transmission Ring Project, which is supposed to put three substations within the capital territory, and provide another avenue for supply from Lafia.

"We have also resuscitated the JAICA project that had been on the drawing board for a long time. Those two projects plus the project that we are going to raise now is about $1.55billion."

On the challenges facing the company in its expansion bid, Mohammed said, "We discovered that right of way is a big problem in Nigeria, and actually it is a national issue. In trying to expand the capacity of transmission, we started collaborating with the states in every area that we are putting significant capacity.

"As part of these projects and investments, we have raised to expand the transmission lines from Shiroro to Kaduna, and from Kaduna to Kano. We are putting a cord line that will carry 2,400MW capacity. We have never had that kind of capacity in Nigeria."