The Federal Executive Council has approved that Nigeria pays its 2020 annual contribution to the West African Power Pool. The country ’s annual contribution to the pool is $2 m.
The approval was given on Wednesday at the weekly meeting of the council presided over by the President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman , disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting at the Presidential Villa , Abuja.
The WAPP was created by a decision at the 22 nd Summit of the Economic Community of West African States Authority of Heads of State and Government in 1999 .
It is meant to integrate the national power systems into a unified regional electricity market with the ultimate goal of providing in the medium and long term , a regular and reliable energy at competitive cost to the citizenry of the ECOWAS region.
Justifying the approval for the payment, Mamman said , “ The pool is about having synergy within the West African region.
“ The decision has been taken by ECOWAS , it is for the generation of electricity in the region , so as to have more constant and steady power supply.
“ It is 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 m is a contribution.”
The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, corroborated Mamman’s justification of the approval.
He said the $ 2 m was not a gift to ECOWAS but Nigeria ’s contribution .
The minister said , “ 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.
“ The consequence is that if there is a problem in one country , it could inadvertently affect the other country .
“ This was created in 1999 by authorities of the West African Heads of State. It is a common pool and every country has its own section and our contribution for this year is $ 2 m .
“ It is not as if we are giving $ 2 m to ECOWAS , we are simply paying our own contribution for the transmission from Nigeria to other West African countries and viz -visa.”
Mohammed added that the council approved the award of contract for the reconstruction of the Apapa -Oworonshoki- Ojota Road Section II in the sum of N 22 . 247 bn.
He said FEC also approved the augmentation of the contract sum for the dualisation of Kano -Maiduguri Road.
He put the augmentation cost at N 8 bn , therefore bringing the total cost of the contract to N 63 bn.
