Chad begs Nigeria for electricity supply

The government of Chad Republic has formally requested the Nigerian government to connect the country to the Nigerian electricity grid.

The request was presented by the Chadian Ambassador to Nigeria, Abakar Saleh Chachaimi during a working visit to the Minister of Power, Engr. Sale Mamman in Abuja.

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While describing the need as pressing, the Ambassador stressed the historical and economic value of connecting Chad to Nigeria’s electricity as a means of continued collaboration between the countries.

Reacting to the request, Engr. Mamman welcomed the development, stressing that it will help in enhancing the long existing relations between the two countries.

The minister said the request from Chad Republic came at the best time as he reassured the Chadian envoy that Nigeria will evaluate it within the various projects under the Transmission Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) for possible integration of the request.

“I, therefore, direct the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) whose representatives are part of this meeting, to come up with a business case and implementation modalities. Based on that, we will write to the Presidency to secure all the necessary approvals,” Engr. Mamman said.

The minister also approved the request to host his counterpart from the Republic of Chad for a technical analysis of the request.

He further informed the Chadian delegation that currently, Nigeria has bilateral contracts for supplying electricity to Niger Republic and Benin Republic which have been ongoing for decades.

Engr. Mamman also noted that under the framework of the West African Power Pool (WAPP) whose objectives include promotion of power exchange among the ECOWAS member states, the Republics of Benin, Burkina-Faso, Niger and Nigeria, are building an 875 kilometre distance of 330 kilovolt power transmission line, the “North Core Transmission line”.

The line will interconnect the four countries for improved power supply from Nigeria.

He said, “this project got the concurrent acceptance of the World Bank (WB), African Development Bank (AfDB) and French Development Agency (AFD) to finance different segments of the proposed transmission line.

“As at September 2019, all the financing became effective and the implementation structure for the project has earlier been established with Project Implementation Unit (PIU) located in Abuja.”