The Federal Government has reduced the planned 3,050 megawatts Mambilla Power Project to 1,500 megawatts, the Minister of Power, Engr Sale Mamman, has said.
Speaking before members of Senate Committee on Power at the National Assembly in Abuja Tuesday, the minister said capacity of the power project was rescoped to 1,500 megawatts to make it bankable and acceptable to the lenders.
“We discovered that the 3,050 megawatts is not feasible. We have sent officials to China to review the project and the memo is on the table of Mr President waiting for approval.
“The idea of rescoping the project is to make it bankable. The market that we are operating today in Nigeria is different from the market that was operated when the Mambilla project was conceived.
“Today we need a project that can be paid for in the market. We are funding the project with loan from a lender who is only interested in funding a project that can pay back the loan.
“Most of the issues around the Mambilla power plant are on bankability of the project. What we did was to redesign the project to be bankable and acceptable to the lenders.”
Dateline Nigeria reports that the Federal Government had in 2017 signed a $5.8bn deal with Chinese firms to generate 3,050 megawatts of electricity.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the committee, Senator Gabriel Suswam (PDP, Benue North East), has asked the minister to account for the N812 million FG paid to the Taraba State government for surveying and demarcation of land where the project would be sited.
Senator Yusuf A. Yusuf (APC, Taraba Central) had expressed concern that paying the money to the state government would make it impossible for the Senate panel to oversight how the money is spent.
“We can’t appropriate money for land survey and demarcation for Mambilla power project and the money is given to Taraba government to engage land surveyors. This will make it difficult for the Senate to oversight the usage of the money,” he said.
But the minister in his response said the money was paid to Taraba State government based on the agreement between the state and the federal government.
“We entered into agreement with the state to support it with money to engage firms, based on the local procurement process, to survey and demarcate the land it donated for the project,” he said.
The chairman, however, said the ministry must give account of how the money was used since it was given by the federal government.
“It is left for you to ask the Taraba government to furnish you with the details of how the N812 million was spent,” Suswam said
