TCN seeks $200m loan from AFDB to boost electricity in northeast

• Don backs FG’s nuclear deal on energy

The Managing Director of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Usman Mohammed, said it was seeking $200 million loan from the African Development Bank (AFDB) to boost electricity in the northeast.

He disclosed this during the commissioning of a 40MVA mobile transformer in Zaria, Kaduna State.

Mohammed explained that the expansion became necessary due to a relapse in energy supply, as well as the need to boost economic activities in the region.

He attributed restiveness and poverty in the northeast to the absence or little power supply.

He said: “The $200m was requested from the AFDB in the 2015 borrowing plan, having earlier indicated its interest in the project.”

He explained that some places in the region were over 1000 kilometers far from the nearest generation station, adding that such areas were being served on a low voltage distribution line, like 33 KV or 11 KV.

The TCN boss stressed that the quality of power had become so low that it could not be used for any economic activities.

“While there is a low level of power consumption, there is also a high-level of poverty in the northeast, where we also have the lowest transmission interphase,” he said.

According to him, the Northeast Transmission Expansion Project was created to address the challenges in the region, which has only two functional 330 KV substations.

Meanwhile, a former Director General, Energy Commission of Nigeria, Prof. Abubakar Sambo, has lauded the agreement between the country and a Russian company to build two nuclear plants to generate electricity.

The don spoke in Benin City at an event to celebrate a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof. Emmanuel Nwanze, who marked 30 years as a professor.

Sambo said the heat generated from one kilogramme of uranium is almost 1000 of the heat content of hydrogen.

He said: “In terms of resources for power generation, solar is the largest, followed by wind, then oil and gas and bio gas bio fuel.

“Hydro is highly limited, but we can tap 80 per cent of it and still need more. I believe that uranium is a good deal for electricity generation, because a nuclear power is a better option.”

According to Nwanze, his years as a professor have been eventful, adding that his research since joining the university in 1976 has been on lipid biochemistry in health and disease.