Tuesday, July 23, 2013: India has signed an agreement with Nigeria wherein a series of solar power plants would be set up in the Niger state as an effort to supply for the grid supply to the African country. The agreement was signed between Sutanu Behuria, the secretary to the Government of India and Nigeria’s permanent secretary in their Ministry of Power, Godknows Igali. Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) would be beginning its preliminary studies for the settlement of the power plants now that the agreement is official. The independent plants are to be set up in selected locations across the state of Niger as stated by Daily Trust, popular Nigerian news daily.
Igali said that the Nigerian power sector is open to foreign investment as a hope for the country to unburden the country’s resource potential, just after the signing. Behuria too expressed India’s interest in provisioning development in various forms in the African nation and especially in the power sector.
Initially a Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) will be set up by the Indian government which will look at the potential segments of work flow. To expedite the power generating process, this unit will be responsible in dealings with the various ministries and get the required clearances. The administrative ministry will take up a more pronounced mantle of the core unit to monitor and follow up on the advances. Nigeria currently suffers from huge electricity crisis and switching to the renewable energy segment is a possible way out.
