FG Targets $32.8bn Investment To Power 300 Million Africans
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, on Tuesday, announced that the estimated investment required for the Mission 300 Compact is $32.8bn, with $15.5bn expected from the private sector.
The Mission, according to him, aims to provide electricity access to 300 million unserved people across Africa by the year 2030.
Adelabu made this known during the Mission 300 Stakeholders Engagement Meeting held in Abuja.
He said the forum was convened to align stakeholders, strategise, and build partnerships necessary to move from the Nigerian Energy Compact to tangible results.
He stated that achieving the Mission 300 target would demand innovation, coordination, and a strong sense of collective responsibility from both public and private sector players, development partners, philanthropists, and civil society organisations.
“Mobilising this level of financing will demand innovation, coordination, and a shared commitment. In this room today are many of the institutions and individuals who can help us shape the future of Nigeria’s energy sector.
“Let us take this opportunity to ask hard questions, identify the practical solutions, and develop actionable plans that will make universal access a reality not just in the policy space, but in the daily lives of our citizens by powering our hospitals, our schools, our industries, and our homes,” Adelabu said.
He reiterated the FG’s commitment to setting the power sector on the path of sustainability and bankability by prioritising the different reforms being undertaken in the sector.
The Minister announced the priorities of the government in power sector reforms to include “addressing the market liquidity issues and initiating required sector reforms”.
“Currently, there’s a huge outstanding debt to the Power Generation companies in the form of unpaid government subsidies, which stands at about ₦4tn as of December 2024.
“The Federal Government is already working out modalities to defray this obligation and to ensure that further obligations are not accrued going forward, the government is working on a plan to transition the sector to a fully cost-reflective regime while implementing targeted subsidies for the economically vulnerable citizens in the country.
“Improving our power generation through recovery of idle capacities and expanding energy mix to ensure energy security, and to dilute the power pool with cheaper and cleaner energy sources.
Other areas he identified included “Expanding transmission infrastructure to deliver more power, ensuring stability of the national grid to put an end to several grid disturbances and collapses previously observed on the grid, and to further strengthen the coordination and management of the national grid.
“Ensuring viability and performance improvement of the distribution segment of the power sector through strategic programs like the Presidential Metering Initiative and the World Bank-funded Distribution Sector Recovery Program (DISREP).”
The minister also said the Power Ministry is pursuing increased renewable energy through its rural electrification and energy transition drive to provide a reliable power supply to unserved and underserved communities.
The Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, who spoke through Zoom from Brazil, also said that the reforms the government was undertaking in the power sector were critical towards unlocking the full potential of the economy, as it would lead to job creation.
He said the reforms have led to a 40 per cent increase in power distribution in the first quarter of 2025.
FG Targets $32.8bn Investment To Power 300 Million Africans is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
