Power sector to gulp $23.9bn in 5yrs

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Benjamin Ezra Dikki, has put the capital expenditure (CAPEX) requirement of the Nigeria electric power sector in the next five years at $23.9 billion.
He revealed this in a presentation to the International Conference on Private Sector Financing/Support of the Power Sector held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Dikki said the distribution companies (DISCOs) alone would require about $1.8 billion in capital expenditure in the next five years for optimal performance.
He noted that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) requires about $2.4 billion to increase power transfer capacity, make the network more stable and reliable, and improve efficiency of electric power transfer by reducing transmission technical losses, adding that it will also enable TCN to increase transmission capacity to 16843MW by the end of 2018.

He stated that $11.7 billion is the CAPEX Funding Requirements for the privatised PHCN Successor Gencos to ramp up and expand capacity. This does not include the requirements of prospective green field and ongoing IPPs.
A breakdown as gleaned from the post-acquisition plans submitted by the investors are as follows:
Ughelli Power Plc:$ 604.0 million, Sapele Power Plc $ 394.0 million, Geregu Power Plc$ 200.0 Million, Afam Power Plc $ 850.0 million.
Kainji Hydro $456.0 million, Egbin Power Plc$ 1700.0 million, and Green Field IPP $  7, 500 million.

Dikki further noted that “Gas Industry sources estimates that $1.5 billion will be required annually for the next 5 years if we are to address gas challenges in the power sector. “In other words a total of US$7.5 billion is required in the next five years for gas infrastructure.”
He recalled the cardinal objectives of the federal government’s power reform programme as:
To reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria so as to attract new investments through provision of quality and dependable power supply to the economy for industrial, commercial and socio-domestic activities.