US Lauds Nigeria’s Power Reforms

The ongoing power

            sector reforms in Nigeria, Saturday received commendation from the United States government.

A statement by the United States Department of State noted that America’s Special Envoy for International Energy Affairs, David Godwyn had on January 12 last year disclosed the reform package with a Nigerian delegation headed by a director in the Ministry of Power, Sanusi Garba.

It said, “The US government applauds the progress that Nigeria had made over the last 18 months in rehabilitating and reforming its power sector,” noting that Nigerian government agencies have invested significant resources into boosting generation capacity and made tremendous progress on key issues of reform.

The statement expressed hopes that the measures would deliver a ten fold increase in power generation within ten years thereby also presenting significant opportunities for U.S. companies.

According to the statement, the 2010 meeting served as a follow-up to the U.S. – Nigeria Binational Commission Energy and Investment Working Group held in June 2010.

The statement said the Nigerian government is in the process of tendering operation and maintenance contracts for state-owned power plants, procuring equipment and engineering services to expand its generation and transmission capacity, and privatizing key aspects of its delivery, generation and distribution system.

According to the U.S. statement, these reforms also enable Independent Power Producers to play a key role in electrical power generation which the U.S. government expects to be a strong area of growth for Nigeria.

“The U.S. government is committed to assisting Nigeria with these reforms which will promote Nigeria’s economic growth and the well-being of its people. USAID provides embedded advisors to assist Nigeria’s privatization process, including reviews of vesting contracts, valuation models and tariffs order.”

Other USAID programmes, the statement said include providing technical assistance and advice on transmission system improvement, renewable energy development, and the reduction of gas flaring through the development of policy and legal framework for a new natural gas infrastructure.

It also disclosed that U.S. will help Nigerian regulatory authorities to establish full cost-recovery tariff for renewable energy and create feasibility studies to support U.S. business interest in the sector.

“The Nigerian government seeks more U.S. participation in its power sector and plans to hold an investor forum to answer questions from interested parties. Qualified U.S. business can receive capital procurement support from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and Capital protection from the overseas Private Investment Corporation,” the statement maintained.