2023-11-28 19:34:00
The Nigerian Electricity Company (Nigelec) has commissioned a 30 megawatt photovoltaic plant to compensate for significant shortages since Nigeria stopped supplying electricity to Niger in response to the July coup, a announced the Minister of Energy on Sunday. Indeed, the country depends 75% on electricity supplies from the Kainji dam in neighboring Nigeria – the country’s only supplier –, according to a 2022 report from this company. But in recent years, successive governments have undertaken to reverse the trend by developing their own energy production, focusing on renewable and thermal energy. Electricity production was even liberalized in 2017 to allow private companies to produce electricity.
Solar as an alternative
Equipped with more than 55,000 solar panels, this plant is the largest solar energy infrastructure ever built in Niger. Nigelec has already noted an “improvement in the quality of service” for its subscribers, particularly in the capital Niamey (1.5 million inhabitants), Dosso (South) and Tillabéri (West), explained on television Mahaman Moustapha Barké, the Nigerien Minister of Energy.
The plant was to have been operational since August 25 but its commissioning was delayed by the departure from Niger of “most of the technical staff” expatriated after the military coup of July 26, he said. However, the start-up of the plant was made possible thanks to “certain technicians” who remained in Niamey, he added, without further details.
“As the plant could not be finalized under the conditions initially planned, operational risks nevertheless arise,” the French embassy in Niger warned in a press release on Sunday. The installation was inaugurated on July 5 by the president ousted by the coup, Mohamed Bazoum, and by Josep Borrell, the head of diplomacy of the European Union.
The plant cost 20 billion CFA francs (30.4 million euros) and was financed in particular thanks to a loan of 15.5 billion CFA francs (23.6 million euros) from the French Agency Development Agency (AFD) and a donation of 3.5 billion CFA francs (5.3 million euros) from the European Union (EU). To increase its financing capacities, the country raised more than 45 billion euros in December 2022 during a donor conference in Paris, in particular to support its energy projects.
A country heavily dependent on Nigeria
For four months, almost all neighborhoods in Niamey have suffered significant power cuts, which Nigeria stopped supplying to Niger as part of sanctions imposed in response to the coup by the Economic Community of States. West Africa (ECOWAS), led by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.
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