European Union Earmarks €150 Million for Nigerian Power Sector

The European Union, EU, has unveiled plans to invest about €150 million into Nigeria’s power sector.

According to the EU, this investment would improve access to use of electricity across the country through various sources.

EU representatives told reporters when a delegation of the regional economic commission visited the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in Abuja that the organization was considering various options but that solar energy tops these options.

Peter Cameron, an EU representative said: “We are interested in access to energy in the country. We have been going round the country and we met briefly last week. We just love to pick a few issues with NERC. The two main focus of this meeting is to discuss relating the problems towards providing energy to Nigeria. The second one is to see if we can start to identify potential projects that would be of interest to you where the European Union support in the energy sector and improving access to entry.”

Another member of EU delegation, Gerrit Clarke stated that solar could be employed in the new partnership to improve access to electricity in Nigeria.

He said: “The European Union has a 150 million euros support to the power sector.

“This initiative concentrates on Nigeria, looking at the areas where this 150 million euros could be spent, the EU is looking to how they can support additional power supply. Solar power is an offshoot of that.”

“There is a program called Sustainable Energy for All. They have a gross facility of 150 million euros. We are investigating how projects for access to electricity, and how best the EU can make impact and help Nigeria get better access to electricity.

Clarke added that the EU is looking at bottlenecks and is designing potential projects that it can support.