Nigeria has gotten a $1.5 billion loan from the US-EXIM Bank to expand the country’s solar power infrastructure in ten different places.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SUN Africa LLC, USA, disclosed this on Thursday.
Adam Cortese spoke to reporters after a meeting between a company delegation and President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja.
He clarified that the loan is a government-to-government arrangement with a favorable rate that lasts for more than 20 years.
He said that the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) will be the owner of the assets, which, in addition to producing cheap electricity, will allow the business to repay the debt.
“Once more, this is government-to-government finance,” he said. It is based on our recent success in Angola, where we provided storage and transmission capacity for solar PV systems worth around $2.6 billion.
The key thing to keep in mind in this situation, in my opinion, is that while the US-EXIM Bank is lending money to the government of Nigeria, it is doing so at a very favorable concessionary rate and for a 20-year term.
The distinctive feature of this approach is that NDPHC will be the owner of its own assets. As a result, it will have its own generation base, and our project will provide electricity at a low levelized cost that will not only enable them to repay the loan from the EXIM Bank but also result in a profit.
President Buhari said during the delegation’s reception that the country’s energy mix will soon include more solar energy, increasing the amount of neglected and unserved communities’ access to electricity.
He said that his administration has started a number of changes targeted at reviving Nigeria’s energy industry in order to increase communities’ access to energy.
The President praised the US developer’s desire to engage in Nigeria’s power sector and said that the federal government will continue to be dedicated to working with the private sector to increase access to energy, create jobs, and advance industrial growth.
The President outlined some of the initiatives this administration has taken to address Nigeria’s energy needs, including the recent passage of the Nigeria Climate Change Bill, which will take effect in November 2021, the World Bank’s implementation of the Power Sector Recovery Programme, and the Nigeria Electrification Program, which aims to improve energy access in rural areas.
