Th European Union, Ambassador in Nigeria, Samuela Isopi disclosed this when she paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
According to her, apart from the 200 million grants invested in the sector since 2008, the EU is ready to invest more 37million Euros into the power sector in Nigeria.
She said the current support would cover small hydro power, solar for health care facilities, rural electrification with isolated and interconnected mini-grids project, circular economy in power sector project.
Ambassador Isopi also used the opportunity to invite the Minister of power to an upcoming launch of two projects funded by the European Union and implemented by UNIDO which will both be launched on March 26, this year.
Nigeria’s Minister of Power, who received the ambassador in company of his Chief Technical Advisor, Mr. Adedayo Olowoniyi, expressed his appreciation to the EU for the support they have been giving to the power sector, saying they need more of their support in order to address the enormous challenges in the sector.
Adebayo identified liquidity issue as the main problem that the government is trying its best to resolve, stressing that the market will only be sustainable when there is a cost reflective tariff in place.
The Minister commended the EU’s programmes for the sector and confirmed the alignment of these programme with the Ministry’s strategy for the sector noting that the Ministry will work with EU on their programmes especially on Small hydro and State electrification within the new electricity act.
The European Union Ambassador, was accompanied by the new Head of Cooperation of the EU, Mr. DE Luca Massimo and the Programme Manager on Energy, Mr. Godfrey Ogbemudia.
Hauwa Abu
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