The African Development Bank has signed for the release of $200m (about N61.2bn) to Nigeria for the expansion of the country’s power transmission infrastructure.

It was gathered in Abuja on Monday that the fund signed last week by the bank’s management would be used under the Nigeria’s Transmission Expansion Programme.

The Acting Vice President for Energy, Power, Climate and Green Growth, Wale Shonibare, disclosed this on the sidelines of his team’s visit to the Minister of State for Power, Goddy Jedy-Agba.

Shonibare said, “We’ve come to recap the progress we are making with our several investments within the power sector in Nigeria around the Nigeria Electrification Project, working with the Rural Electrification Agency where our board approved $200m.

And we also have the work we are doing with the transmission company under the NTEP programme where we’ve approved $200m for phase one and there is a phase two. It is a $410m programme.”

When asked to state when the $200m was approved for the transmission expansion programme, Shonibare replied, “For the NTEP programme, it was signed last week and so the investments will start flowing into the sector very soon.

“Over the coming months, we will be looking to progress into the second phase of the power transmission programme.”

On the REA programme with the bank, he said, “That has already been signed and it is under implementation as we speak. In fact, I am here to flag off the beginning of that programme for the REA.”

Shonibare said the bank had commenced discussions with power distributors as the AfDB seeks to invest in the Discos.

He said, “We are also supporting government on the Jigawa Solar Project where we provided $1m to support feasibility studies for phase one and we will be looking at phase two, going forward.

We are also looking at ways in which we can intervene in the distribution sector. And that work is going on right now, to see what’s the best way of supporting investments in distribution.”

Jedy-Agba said the bank had offered to provide additional support to the country’s power sector.

The AfDB has offered to invest more in our power sector. They have offered to increase their funding and diversify from REA to other things as well,” the minister stated.