The Federal Executive Council (FEC), , approved $247.3 million loan facility from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the French government.
Disclosing this while briefing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, said the loans of $150 million which were from the AfDB, $50 million was from African Grow Together Fund, would be used to finance the Nigeria electrification project.
She said: “Council approved three memos for the ministry of finance. First, it approved a $150 million loan facility from the African development bank and $50 million loans from African Grow Together Fund to finance the Nigeria electrification project. The project is a nationwide initiative to be implemented by the rural electrification agency. The project aligns with the strategy of the federal government on the electrifying rural community.
The project has four components, first is solar hybrid mini-grid for rural economic development. The second is productive appliances equipment for off-grid communities and the third is energising education while the fourth component is institutional capacity building. The impact of the project when fully implemented, about 500,000 people will be able to have access to electricity for about 105,000 households. The maximum power that will be generated will be 76.5 megawatts installed generating capacity part of which is 68,000 megawatts of solar. “Eight universities will benefit from this scheme and about 20,000 small, micro, medium enterprises across different communities in the nation.”