SIE Siemens AG

By Obafemi Oredein

Special to Dow Jones Newswires

IBADAN, Nigeria--Nigeria's electricity goal is to "work hard" to achieve 7,000 megawatts of reliable power by 2021, rising to 11,000 megawatts by 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari said Monday.

Speaking in Abuja at a meeting with Joe Kaeser, chief executive officer of Siemens AG (SIE.XE), Mr. Buhari said the 7,000 and 11,000 megawatts respectively will cover the first and second phases of the power-improvement initiative in Nigeria.

He said after transmission and distribution system bottlenecks have been fixed, "we will seek--in the third and final phase--to drive generation capacity and overall grid capacity to 25,000 megawatts, according to a statement from his office.

"I recall my meeting in August last year with Chancellor Angela Merkel here in Abuja, when both our governments committed to future cooperation to support economic growth and development in Nigeria," Mr. Buhari said. "We were clear that fixing the power sector was a key priority for this administration."

He added that it was then that Mr. Kaeser committed to working with Nigeria to develop a "feasible roadmap to modernize Nigeria's electricity grid with support from the German government."

Mr. Buhari said that despite more than 13,000 megawatts of power generation capacity in Nigeria, only an average of 4,000 megawatts reliably reaches consumers.

The inadequate power results in regular blackouts in homes, offices and industries and has stunted the country's economic development.

"Our intention is to ensure that our cooperation is structured under a government-to-government framework. No middlemen will be involved, so that we can achieve value for money for Nigerians. We also insist that all products be manufactured to high-quality German and European standards and competitively priced," Mr. Buhari said.

Before the end of the meeting, Nigeria and Siemens signed an agreement for the Nigerian Electrification Road Map which also involves the German government, according to a statement from Mr.Buhari's office. Terms weren't disclosed.

Mr. Kaeser said Siemens would "work hard to improve the electricity in Nigeria as the country's economy will only achieve sustainable development with adequate power supply." Mr. Kaeser was cited in the statement as saying he would personally supervise the implementation of the agreement.

Write to Barcelona Editors at barcelonaeditors@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 22, 2019 16:54 ET (20:54 GMT)

Siemens (TG:SIE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2024 to Apr 2024

Siemens (TG:SIE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2023 to Apr 2024