Nigerians will have better access to electricity by the first half of 2024, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Amb Maitama Tuggar, following the signing of the Siemens gas agreement between Germany and Nigeria.
On Channels Television’s Politics Today program yesterday, Tuggar gave a virtual speech from Berlin, Germany.
“In the coming year by the first half of next year (2024), there will be a remarkable improvement in the electricity supply in Nigeria,” he said, adding that the setbacks experienced in the past would be managed by President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
In 2018, former President Muhammadu Buhari made a commitment to increase Nigeria’s electricity capacity from 4,000 megawatts to 25,000 megawatts by 2025.
Under the Presidential Power Initiative, he signed a contract with Siemens Energy in Germany, but the project has not yet been completed.
However, the minister, who is part of the President’s team at the G20 Compact with Africa Economic Conference in Germany, said the Siemens deal is “fully back”.
Tuggar claimed that both Germany and Nigeria stand to gain from the gas agreement. “Nigeria’s domestic gas needs will be met as well, so the fact that we are exporting gas to Germany or plan to do so does not imply that we are denying that country’s needs; you need the money that would come from these exports to invest further in bringing gas and electricity to other parts of Nigeria,” he stated.
Therefore, everything is related, and nothing prevents anything else from happening.
The minister further said electricity supply would improve with the completion of the ongoing AKK project – the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano project.
