Energy Briefs
–
THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, is investigating why some Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs, are rejecting electricity load allocated to them. Against the background that the DISCOs are not supposed to turn down the allocation offer, Sam Amadi, chairman of the commission, said some of the firms might have rejected their allocations due to network and capacity constraints.
Some of the firms might be afraid of paying the excess charge of accepting load allocation that is beyond their capacity.
In a negative sense, the turn down the allocation when they are afraid of paying the excess charges when they have exceeded their capacity and they are given extra load they have to pay for. “So, we are investigating; we have asked our people to find out whether the DISCOs have genuine reasons. May be they are afraid of taking more than what they can sell,” he said.
NERC wrote a letter on October 8, mandating the firms to pay their opening balance to the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company, NELMCO and outstanding Value Added Tax, VAT, to Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS. In the letter, the commission requested the DISCOs to refund the NELCOM and the FIRS or face the fine of paying N10,000 per hour from October 17.
–
Japan Funds Solar Project in Nigeria
JAPAN is assisting Nigeria to develop its solar electricity project with a grant of N1.9 billion as part of its infrastructure development assistance. Ryuichi Shoji, Japanese Ambassador to Nigeria, at a news conference in Abuja, said the support to Nigeria was part of his nation’s official development assistance, following the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African development, a summit initiated by Japan in 1993 to revive the interest of the international community in African development.
Shoji said that Japan was considering a plan for Nigeria’s automobile industry development and a center for industrial human capacity development, stressing that Japanese companies would soon double their presence in the country.
It is not only in power that Japan is helping Nigeria. It budgeted $85 million loan for polio eradication and another $4 million grant for medical equipment for community health centres in the country
Japan has also slated $12.77 as a grant for primary school construction in Oyo State and is empowering small-scale farmers by assisting with rice post-harvest and marketing improvement project, aquaculture and shea butter processing facilities. Shoji said his country planned to contribute to the growth of Africa by spending about $32 billion (¥3.2tn), utilising private and public means, including Official Development Assistance worth $14 billion (¥1.4tn), in the next five years.
He explained that Japan also planned to double its rice production in sub-Saharan Africa to 28 million tonnes by 2018 through the continuing efforts of the Coalition for African Rice Development. Shoji stated that Japan was working to transform farmers from subsistence to commercial ones in 10 African countries, stressing that access to safe water and sanitation would get support. The Asian country is also considering a $200 million request from the federal government for power transmission project.
— Dec. 15, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
|
Tags:
