Tuesday 7 June 2011

Essar to finance Nigerian power plant

CALABAR: Indian company Essar African Holdings will finance a 600-MW power plant in Cross River State in the West African nation of Nigeria, company officials say.

The power plant will come up in state capital Calabar. Nigeria, with a population of more than 140 million, is said to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Nigeria is the biggest economy in sub-Saharan Africa and poised to become the biggest in Africa and one of the world's 20 biggest economies by 2020.

In an e-mail response to IANS, the company said: "We can confirm that Essar African Holdings has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) for this project whereby we would look to set up a 600-MW gas-fired power plant in two phases."

"It is in the very early stages of development, having just signed the MoU and so too early to provide any further comment," the company said.

The agreement was signed in Calabar by Essar's senior vice president for business development, Inder Kapoor, and the state's special advisor on investment promotion, Gerald Addah .

Kapoor said at the time of signing the agreement that Cross River State was the first Nigerian state in which the company intended to build a power plant. "The decision to invest in the state was based on a feasibility study which found that Cross River State has more advantages."

Deputy Governor Efiok Cobham said Essar's decision to invest in the state would help improve the relationship between India and Nigeria.

Cobham said the plant, when completed, will not only help complement the supply of electricity, which has been a major headache, to the people by the Power Holding Company (PHC) but would also increase economic activities in the state.

He hoped that the project would take off soon and asked the company to explore other areas where it could make investment as Cross River State was the most investor-friendly state in Nigeria.

Addah said the power plant would be constructed in two phases of 300 MW each and construction work for the project was expected to commence within one year.

He said the 35 hectares of land for the project has been acquired and the guidelines for private companies intending to set up power plants in the country had been met.

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