Federal Government Approves $2m For West African Power Pool

The Federal Executive Council has approved Nigeria’s annual payment of $2m to the West African Power Pool.

Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Mamman said the approval was given at the weekly meeting of the council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“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 $2m is a contribution.”

Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed said $2m was not a gift to ECOWAS but Nigeria’s contribution.

“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 $2m.

“It is not as if we are giving $2m to ECOWAS, we are simply paying our own contribution for the transmission from Nigeria to other West African countries and viz-visa,” Mohammed said