Photo: Premium Times, Talatu Usman
PANA
Lagos, Nigeria – The Nigerian government has renewed its energy partnership agreement with Germany to boost bilateral relations between the two countries and address the African nation’s power deficit, the local media reported Wednesday.
It said the agreement, which resulted from a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by both countries in 2008, was extended by another five years.
The Permanent Secretary in Nigeria’s Ministry of Power, Mr. Godknows Igali, signed for his country after a two-day meeting with the Germans in Abuja, the Nigerian capital.
He said the extension became necessary after a careful review of the achievements of the cooperation in the last five years.
Mr. Igali said the partnership involved a variety of projects with the dual objectives of arresting the severe power shortage in Nigeria, adding that the completion of the projects under the partnership would add 6,500MW of electricity to the national grid.
The leader of the German team, Prof. Harald Braun, said the partnership’s target was to generate 500MW of power from solar energy alone.
Prof. Braun, who is also his country’s State Secretary and Deputy Foreign Minister, noted that several areas had been identified for development.
“We had focus on renewable with large hydro rehabilitation and capacity support to Nigerians. We have the solar map of the country. The meeting had full content and we intend to generate 500MW of electricity from solar within the next five years,” he said.
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