President Muhammadu Buhari said he has approved the release of funding to begin the first part of the Phase 1 of the Siemens Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) which will kick-off the pre-engineering and concession financing work streams.
To ensure fairness and transparency of the intervention, the President also directed that the federal government engage the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to assist in developing the commercial structure of the intervention, and that it should execute an independent valuation of the Distribution Companies (DisCos).
According to a statement posted by the Presidency on its Twitter handle, The President has also directed that to ensure value for money and preserve the integrity & transparency of the procurement process under the Govt-to-Govt framework, Siemens AG shall be solely responsible for nominating its Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) partners to perform all onshore works; NO middlemen.
“Our goal is simply to deliver electricity to Nigerian businesses and homes… Our intention is to ensure that our cooperation is structured under a Government-to-Government framework. No middlemen will be involved, so that we can achieve value for money for Nigerians.”
The PPI journey started on August 31, 2018, when Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Nigeria and met with President Buhari.
Chancellor brought along with her a business delegation that included the Global CEO of Siemens. Nigeria and Germany agreed to explore cooperation in a number of areas, including Power.
The Presidential Power Initiative (PPI):
- Will deliver improved power supply nationwide, with attendant results in job creation, investor confidence, cost and ease of doing business and economic growth.
- Will provide training & capacity building for thousands of young Nigerians (non-graduates, students & graduates)
- Will create economic opportunities for Nigerian engineering companies that will serve as local vendors for the provision of manpower and equipment.
- Will stimulate/encourage inflow of additional investment into the power sector.
The ultimate goal of the PPI is to modernize and increase the Nigerian electricity grid capacity from about 5000MW currently to 25000MW, over three phases.
