Fashola Unveils FG’s Strategy in Obtaining $5.2 Billion World Bank Loan for Power Sector

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, while speaking at an interactive forum with the media and members of civil society in Lagos recently, said that the Federal Government is adopting a “home-grown” strategy to seek a $5.2 billion loan from the World Bank so as to improve electricity generation, distribution, and transmission in the country, The Nation reports.

Under the terms for seeking the loan, Fashola said the private sector arm of World Bank would invest $1.3 billion in power projects and electricity distribution companies, while the bank’s political insurer known as the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency would provide equity of $1.4 billion for gas and solar power programmes. Also, the lender will provide $2.5 billion to improve the distribution of power, expand transmission capacity and increase access to electricity in rural areas.

According to him, the home-grown strategy required that government present a paper on the problems, inhibiting the growth of the sector. He said the idea has endeared the Federal Government to the World Bank, which has promised to support the sector financially when the time comes. He said the bank was impressed that the government understood the peculiarities and the magnitude of the problems facing the industry and the capacity to proffer solutions to them when the matter was tabled before it.

Source: Energy Mix Report