The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved $2 million as Nigeria’s contribution to the West African power pool.
Minister of Power, Mr Sale Mamman, said this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He said the contribution would generate income for Nigeria to cushion the dwindling oil revenue.
The minister said the regional power pools would be of great assistance in case the national grid of any of member states fails.
“The pool is about having synergy within the West African region. The decision has been taken by ECOWAS, it’s for the generation of electricity in the region, so as to have a more constant and steady power supply. It’s like the national grid in Nigeria, so we are going to have a regional grid. It means in case there is a failure in one country, another can supplement. The $2 million is a contribution,” he said.
Also speaking, Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, said all ECOWAS countries contribute annually to the cost of transmission of electricity in the region.
“The West African power pool is made up of all west African countries because each member state contributes annually to the cost of power transmission across the pool. Because, the consequence is that if there is a problem in one country it could inadvertently affect the other country.
“It’s a common pool and every country has its own section and our contribution for this year is $2 million. It’s not as if we are giving $2 million to ECOWAS, we are simply paying our own contribution for the transmission from Nigeria to other wear African countries and viz-visa,” he said.
The minister said the pool was created in 1999 by the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS.
