By Teddy Nwanunobi
Abuja (Sundiata Post) — The Federal Government, on Tuesday, signed a Put/Call Option Agreement (POCA) with two local companies – Afrinergia and CT Cosmos Solar Power Developers for the production of 50 megawatts and 70 megawatts of solar power to the national grid.
POCA is an agreement whereby the Federal Government is standing in gap for both the investors and Nigerians to pay for power, even if consumers do not pay.
By so doing, the investors are guaranteed of safety of their investment, on the one hand, while Nigerians are guaranteed of stable electricity, on the other.
Speaking at the ceremony which was held at the Ministry’s Headquarter in Abuja, the Minister of Power Works & Housing, Babatunde Fashola, commended the local investors for this initiative, pointing out that this is in tandem with the present administration’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of which power is among.
He further said that the solar power initiative fits very well with the Ministry’s drive towards achieving incremental, stable and uninterrupted power supply.
“We are committed to getting incremental power wherever it is available,” he added in a statement issued by the Ministry’s Deputy Director of Press, Etore E. Thomas.
The Minister also disclosed that the initiative fits well with the Ministry’s energy mix of which 30 percent would be renewable energy, by the year 2030.
Minister of Power Works & Housing, Babatunde Fashola, (3rd left); Permanent Secretary, Power, in the Ministry, Louis Edozien (left); Chief Executive Officer, Afrinergia Power Ltd, Bestman Uwadia (2nd left); MD/CEO, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), Marilyn Amobi (3rd right); Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, CT Cosmos, Henry Opara(middle); representative of the Engineering Procurement Contractor (EPC), Fernando Palo Bujanada of AEE Power, S.A (right); and others at the signing ceremony of the POCA for Afrinergia and CT Cosmos Solar Power Developers by the Federal Government at the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing Headquarters, Mabushi, Abuja, on Tuesday, April 11, 2017
Fashola used the occasion to call on more investors to come into the sector, adding that government is committed to stimulating the private sector development of renewable energy through right policies and institutional frameworks.
Earlier, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Afrinergia Power Limited, Bestman Uwadia, expressed the Company’s commitment to the completion of the project on record time.
Uwadia said that Nigerians need power and the company has passed all the hurdles required and that very soon solar power would be added to the national grid.