Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, has affirmed President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to continuing the Siemens electrification deal by former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In an interview on Channels Television, Tuggar assured that there would be a significant improvement in the country’s electricity supply by the first half of the upcoming year.
The Siemens agreement, established in 2019, aimed to elevate Nigeria’s electricity output to 7,000 megawatts in the initial phase, with a target to achieve a total generation and output capacity of 25,000 megawatts by 2025.
However, the ambitious project, crucial for revitalizing Nigeria’s power infrastructure, encountered a setback five years ago due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oladayo Orolu, the head of business development and government relations at Siemens, acknowledged the project’s delay, attributing it to the unforeseen impact of the pandemic.
He mentioned that the initial plan, conceptualized in 2018, aimed to complete phase one within two years. However, the onset of COVID-19 significantly impeded progress.
The original blueprint envisioned Siemens Energy enhancing the country’s grid operational capacity from below 5,000 megawatts to 7,000 megawatts by 2021, scaling it further to 11,000 megawatts by 2023 and ultimately delivering an impressive 25,000 megawatts by 2025.
