Fresh facts have emerged as to how a $50million lifeline from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) helped to restore the almost moribund Aba Power project in Abia State.
Giving this insight was Mrs. Agatha Nnaji, the Group Managing Director of Geometric Power Group, which operates Nigeria’s first indigenous, independent and integrated power company handling both power generation and distribution – Geometric Power Aba Limited, GPAL, and Aba Power Limited Electric, APLE.
Mrs. Nnaji, who addressed some journalists during a recent tour of its facility in Aba, Abia State, as part of the Afreximbank Season 2 Impact Stories site visits, confirmed that the $50m from Afreximbank helped to get the power project back on an even keel after it was stalled by years of policy inconsistencies amongst other combinations of factors.
The Geometric Power Group boss who said it doesn’t bear repeating some of the harrowing experiences however lamented that during the long hiatus, the company for seven years running spent a huge cost maintaining facilities and paying staff salaries even as the project was put on hold due to bureaucratic bottlenecks.
Thankfully, she said the intervention by the Afreximbank helped to address the immediate financial constraints and technical challenges which hitherto militated against its operation.
“We had staff that had to be paid to continue to maintain it. But at the end of the day, when we now came up with the actual amount that we needed to complete, Afrexim came to the rescue,” she recalled.
“Afreximbank came because they saw the vision. They understood the impact it would have on the people who were going to serve,” she stressed.
According to her, the power plant has installed generation capacity of 141 megawatts from three turbines, with a fourth turbine that can help boost the capacity to 188 megawatts even as she noted that the gas pipeline supplying the plant was built to support generation of up to 500 megawatts within the area.
She said it was heartening to note that the Aba Integrated Power Project is a model that should make a difference in the Nigerian power sector.
“We believe it’s a model that is workable, that would enable people to get power at an affordable level, provided that it is done right by whoever the sponsors are. So what we’ve been able to achieve in Aba is to prove that it is possible for Nigerians to have power supply that is affordable, that is sustainable on a 24-7 basis.
“We have a vision which is an inspired vision as Geometric Power. Our goal here is to provide power that will enable the people to grow economically, socially, and environmentally. Geometric Power is evidence that private-led investment in the power sector can succeed.”
