The World Bank has just approved $3 billion to support the extension of Nigeria’s power transmission and distribution network. Hajiya Zainab Ahmed (pictured), the Nigerian Minister of Finance, said the money will be disbursed into four tranches of $750 million with the first disbursement scheduled for April 2020.

With this funding, authorities want to implement reforms that will bridge the gap between the current tariff and the actual cost of generating electricity.

“Some portion of the loan will be used for the transmission network and if we are able to expand to $4 billion then the extra $1 billion will be for the distribution network. The distribution sector will be at the backend when the other reforms have been carried out. It will be a loan to the distribution companies because they are owned by the private sector,” the minister said.

The official reveals that during annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group, the government required, in addition to the financing, technical assistance from the Bank for the review of the performance improvement plans of the distribution networks.

Gwladys Johnson Akinocho