Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Maitama Tuggar, has announced that the Siemens gas deal between Nigeria and Germany will result in improved electricity supply for Nigerians by the first half of 2024.
Tuggar, who spoke virtually from Berlin, Germany, expressed confidence that the setbacks experienced in the past would be effectively managed by the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
The Minister who appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday said: “In the coming year, by the first half of next year (2024), there will be a remarkable improvement in the electricity supply in Nigeria.”
Recall that the immediate past President, Muhammadu Buhari, made a commitment in 2018 to increase Nigeria’s electricity capacity from the current 4,000 megawatts to 25,000 megawatts by 2025 through a partnership with Siemens Energy in Germany called the Presidential Power Initiative. However, this project has not been realized.
Nevertheless, Tuggar, who is part of the President’s delegation at the G20 Compact with Africa Economic Conference in Germany, has stated that the Siemens deal is now fully operational.
Tuggar emphasized that the gas agreement between Nigeria and Germany is mutually beneficial. He explained: “The fact that we are exporting gas to Germany or we intend to do that does not mean that we are depriving Nigeria’s domestic gas needs; that will be fulfilled as well, but you also need the revenue that would accrue from such exports to invest further in taking electricity and gas to other parts of Nigeria. So, it’s all interconnected, and one does not stop the other from happening.”
The completion of the ongoing AKK project, also known as the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano project, will lead to an enhancement in the electricity supply, as stated by the minister.
