NNPC Secures $1.16m US Grant for 1,350MW Abuja Power Plant

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has signed an agreement with the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) for a $1.16 million grant to fund the  Abuja Independent Power Project (IPP).

This was disclosed in a statement by the corporations spokesperson Samson Makoji, who added that the management of  both parties met at the NNPC Towers, Abuja, on Thursday and agreed to close out the deal on 1st December, 2019.

The statement quoted the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mele Kyari, as saying the corporation’s plan to build the 1,350mw power plant in Abuja was part of the national strategy to alleviate the power challenge in the country and also make the initiative more bankable for strategic investors’ participation

“As a state-owned oil company and enabler organization, we know that our investment in the Abuja 1,350mw IPP will increase energy supply level with great impact on the nation’s economy. Therefore, the USTDA grant is timely to make it a bankable project that would attract foreign direct investment into the country”, he said.

The GMD assured the U.S. team that every money given as grant to the corporation will be fully utilized and accounted for.

He called on the USTDA to look beyond feasibility studies to actual delivery of the project, stressing that the power plant project has a lot of viable investment opportunities for all investors.

In her remark, the Country Manager, Power Africa and the leader of the USTDA delegation, Jullian Foerster, stated that her organization was determined to work with the corporation on other business opportunities in the coming year, 2020.

She however stressed that NNPC’s strategic role as a key player in the oil and gas industry made the U.S. Agency to “jump at the opportunity to work on this deal” of providing support in the form of a grant.

The NNPC had expressed its preparedness to build additional Independent Power Plants in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano which is expected to add 4,0000 megawatts of  power to stabilize the national grid.