Jun 13, 2006 -- BBC Monitoring

 

An initial 200 megawatts out of the projected 335 megawatts of electricity from the Papalanto thermal power plant in Ogun State [in southwestern Nigeria] will be injected into the national grid by December this year. The minister of power and steel, Mr Liyel Imoke, announced this while inspecting the construction of the power plant in Papalanto. He said the decision to inject the initial 200 megawatts was to curb the persistent power outages in the country.

Mr Imoke explained that the remaining 135 megawatts would be distributed at the completion of the Papalanto project next year. The consulting engineer, Mr Joe Uhuja [phonetic], told the minister that part of the contract included the construction of high tension transmission lines from Ikeja in Lagos to Papalanto. Power and steel correspondent Femi Bobade reports that the Papalanto power plant is being constructed with the counterpart fund of 13bn naira [approximately 104,562,673 dollars] by the federal government while the Chinese Exim Bank is contributing 27bn naira [approximately 21,716,863 dollars].

Source: Radio Nigeria-Abuja in English 0600 gmt 13 Jun 06

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