Power Project: NNPC To Get $1.16m US Grant 

• Power Project: NNPC To Get $1.16m US Grant 

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is at the verge of getting a $1.16 million grant to fund the NNPC-Abuja Independent Power Project (IPP).

This follows the business meeting between the Management of NNPC and the United States Trade and Development Agency  (USTDA) at the NNPC Towers, Abuja, on Thursday.

According to the NNPC, the agreement to sign the $1.16 million grant has already been completed, and both have agreed to close out the deal on the 1st of December, 2019.

The Corporation noted that the project is expected to generate 1,350 megawatts of electricity that will alleviate the power challenge in the country.

Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC,  stressed that the plan by the corporation to build the 1,350mw power plant in Abuja was part of the national strategy to monetize the abundant natural gas resources in Nigeria.

A statement signed by the Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division stated that the USDTA grant was to complement the ongoing feed project in order to make the Abuja IPP initiative more bankable for strategic investors’ participation.

“As a state-owned oil company and enabler organization, we know that our investment in the Abuja 1,350mw IPP will increase energy supply level with great impact on the nation’s economy. Therefore, the USTDA grant is timely to make it a bankable project that would attract foreign direct investment into the country”, he said.

The NNPC boss pledged that every single penny that the Corporation gets from US grant, will be fully utilized and accounted for.

“This company is focused on making our systems and processes transparent and accountable and that is why we are engaging world-class institutions with good track record in execution of our projects”, the GMD explained.

Kyari who noted that the power plant project has a lot of viable investment opportunities for all investors urged the USTDA to look beyond feasibility studies to the actual delivery of the project.

The Country Manager, Power Africa and the leader of the USTDA delegation, Jullian Foerster, on her part, assured that her organization was determined to work with the corporation to sign off on the grant not later than 1st December 2019.

She said that USTDA was open to other business opportunities in the coming year, 2020, noting that NNPC’s strategic role as a key player in the oil and gas industry made the U.S. Agency to “jump at the opportunity to work on this deal” of providing support in the form of a grant.