The Senate, on Monday, said all the financial and legal hurdles hindering the smooth take-off of the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power projects had been resolved.
It said the contractors are expected to mobilise staff and materials to the site before the end of the year.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Local Content, Senator Teslim Folarin, stated this while receiving the report of the finance subcommittee of the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power projects.
He said the subcommittee was an offshoot of the Technical Working Group on Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Local Content, which was inaugurated in June, 2020.
The Federal Executive Council on 30th August, 2017, approved the contract for the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power project in the sum of $5.792 for the construction of 3050MW plants.
The project was awarded to Chinese contractors JV (CGGC-SHC-CGCC) to be sited in Gembu, Taraba State.
Folarin noted that the challenges that emanated in the course of the execution of the project caused the Presidential Committee on North-East Development, now the North East Development Commission, to review the initial plan of the Technical Working Group.
He said the NEDC came up with a working document, wherein the work of the TWG was reshaped and streamlined for effective and seamless implementation of the project.
“Thereafter, the reviewed report was forwarded to the National Assembly for further legislative action,” he said.
“Consequently, the National Assembly along with the Technical Working Group, constituted the Finance Subcommittee under the Chairmanship of the Executive Director, NEXIM Bank.
“The Subcommittee was inaugurated earlier this year by the Senate Committee on Local Content and it was mandated to report back to the committee within six weeks.”
The senator said the subcommittee was mandated to work out modalities that would facilitate the financial requirement of the local-content aspect of the project, which was estimated at N1.7bn representing 30 per cent of the approved contract of $5.7bn.
“The Nigerian Export and Import Bank was mandated to play the lead role in the subcommittee, while the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority was to serve as the secretariat of the panel.
“I have no doubt in my mind that all these issues, among others, are succinctly addressed in the report and I believe that at the end, we shall have a document that will provide a way forward on the project.”
The lawmaker told newsmen after the presentation of the report, that the major legal challenge, which had made it almost impossible for the project to take off, had been resolved.
“We have made some progress and breakthroughs, but we are yet to forward the report to the leadership of the Senate,” he asserted.
“The federal government was mandated to pay to the contractors (Sunrise) $200m and if we don’t pay within a stipulated time, then we have accrued interest.
“As far as the contractors are concerned, they said their money is now $400m because of the accumulated interests.
“The project was officially awarded by the Federal Executive Council on August 30, 2017, and it has been signed as a contract between the Nigerian government, Ministry of Power and the Chinese Joint Venture of CGGC.”
The Liaison officer and administrator for Hypertech, the consultant to the Federal Government and Chinese government on the Mambilla project, Mrs Maimuna Muhammed, also said all litigation had been effectively resolved.
She said, “We have a breakthrough concerning all the litigation about the project. All the delays we had before everything has been sorted out.
“Now we are ready to kick-start the project. The next programme we are going to have is the Business Roundtable, after that we move to the site, in Taraba State.”
