Five solar plants for the North
The Northern States Governors Forum [NSGF] recently signed an MOU with General Electric Corporation of the United States in order to build solar power stations in five Northern states. Under the deal, Borno, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger and Taraba will each get a 100 MW solar power plant, 500 MW in all. The MOU was signed […]
The Northern States Governors Forum [NSGF] recently signed an MOU with General Electric Corporation of the United States in order to build solar power stations in five Northern states. Under the deal, Borno, Kebbi, Nasarawa, Niger and Taraba will each get a 100 MW solar power plant, 500 MW in all. The MOU was signed on behalf of the states by Governor of Borno State Alhaji Kashim Shettima, who is also Chairman of NSGF.
The project is being coordinated by the Northern Nigeria Global Economic Reintegration Scheme recently created by the Northern governors. General Electric’s Senior Executive, Western Europe and Africa Mr Armand Pineda and the President/Chief Executive Officer, ýGeneral Electric Nigeria Dr Lazarus Angbazo signed on behalf of their company at a brief ceremony at Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja. The Governors Forum also engaged the services of Malam Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi as Chief Executive Officer of the program. Kurfi was Chief Economic Adviser to late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.
Speaking at the ceremony, Governor Shettima said NSGF wanted “to go beyond lamentation to provide solutions and we all know that power is key to industrial development. With power, we can create jobs, stimulate our economies and make life better for our people. General Electric has over 120 years’ experience in energy solutions and they have been operating in Nigeria for over 50 years. We cannot have a better partner than GE. We shall do our part as Governors, this I will assure you. We are deeply committed to this agreement.”
The merits of this initiative are very visible because solar energy is one valuable and reliable power generation option that this country is yet to tap. Experts estimate that Nigeria can generate as much as 600,000 MW of electricity from solar power by deploying solar panels to only one percent of its land mass. Given that the geography of these collaborating states favours them courtesy of the all year-round endowment of free sunlight, the project is most commendable. Besides, the high proportion of rural economy of these states makes solar plants the most viable power generation option for them.
Still, there are several factors that call for caution over the initiative if the promise it offers is to be delivered as planned and the exercise is not to end up as one of the many white elephant public projects. Incidentally, this is not the first initiative in respect of solar powered projects in the country and in the North in particular. There are several such projects that started with significant promise but midway into execution they were stalled. This initiative needs to learn from the lessons of those earlier ones.
The first area of concern is the issue of follow through by the governors. We hope the other governors are as enthusiastic about this project as their chairman Shettima is. Free as it may seem, solar energy is not a fully developed resource and can offer significant challenges in terms of cost and efficiency. That is why the collaborating states need to brace up and ensure that having started on the journey, they will not look back. NSGF did not disclose the full details of its solar plan including how much it would cost and who will provide the funds. We expect that all these have been carefully worked out in order to guarantee the project adequate financial provisions.
We also urge NSGF to involve the private sector in this project, if not at the level of construction, at least at the level of project management. NSGF must also work out appropriate agreements with Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the electricity distribution companies. All these are necessary to ensure the project’s success. If NSGF pulls off this one, it will be a historic milestone in the North’s economic development. We urge them to accord to this project the priority attention it richly deserves.