By the first half of 2024, Nigerians would have better access to electricity because to the Siemens gas agreement between Germany and Nigeria, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Amb Maitama Tuggar.
Tuggar appeared digitally on Channels Television’s Politics Today broadcast on Tuesday, speaking from Berlin, Germany.
“There will be a remarkable improvement in Nigeria’s electricity supply in the coming year by the first half of next year (2024),” he declared, adding that the President Bola Tinubu administration would handle the difficulties encountered in the past.
When he signed an agreement with Siemens Energy in Germany in 2018 as part of the Presidential Power Initiative, former President Muhammadu Buhari pledged to increase Nigeria’s energy capacity, which is now at 4,000 megawatts, to 25,000 megawatts by 2025. However, the project has not yet been completed.
The minister said that the Siemens agreement is “fully back,” nevertheless, and he is accompanying the president to the G20 Compact with Africa Economic Conference in Germany.
Tuggar claimed that both Germany and Nigeria stand to gain from the gas agreement. “Nigeria’s domestic gas needs will be met as well, so the fact that we are exporting gas to Germany or plan to do so does not imply that we are denying that country’s needs; you need the money that would come from these exports to invest further in bringing gas and electricity to other parts of Nigeria,” he stated. Therefore, everything is related, and nothing prevents anything else from happening.
The minister went on to say that after the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano project, which is currently underway, is completed, the supply of energy will improve.
