The Minister of Power, Mr Abubakar Aliyu on Thursday in Abuja affirmed Nigeria’s commitment to the North Core Regional Interconnection Project.
Mr Odutayo Oluseyi, the Assistant Director, Information/Press, Ministry of Power said this in a statement in Abuja.
Oluseyi quoted the minister as saying this when Shubham Chaudhuri, the Country Director, Nigeria Western and Central Africa Region, and his team who were on a joint midterm review mission of the project visied him.
The minister assured the funding partners of North Core/Dorsale Nord Regional Interconnector Project comprising Nigeria, Niger, Benin, Togo and Burkina Faso of Nigeria’s commitment to the actualisation of the project.
Responding to the issues of Social Safeguard payments, compensation of communities that the project would affect, he said that there was adequate budgetary provision to cater for them particularly in the 2022 budget
He said that as soon as all required processes were put in place, the compensation would commence as contractors could move to site as long as there were no encumbrances.
According to him, there is the need for all funding partners to be aligned to avoid delay in the execution of the project.
He also assured them that adequate security measures were being put in place by all West Africa Power Pool Countries (WAPP).
He said that the Minister of Defence, Nigeria and all other defence ministers were present at the February, 2022 ground-breaking ceremony at Niamey, Niger to put in place measures as regards to security.
Speaking earlier, Chaudhuri said part of the objective of the joint mid-term review mission on the project by the World Bank, Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and the Agence Francaise de Development (AFD) was to discuss the results achieved.
Chaudhiri, represented by Emmanuel Py, Senior Energy Specialist and Project Manager, project said that the joint mid-term review would also discuss the constraint to the implementation of the remaining project activities.
”And the Northern Corridor project; Social Safeguard payments steps in terms of resettlement action plan (RAP) implementation in Nigeria;
”Actions and implementation plan in order to ensure Nigeria electricity is expected by November, 2024, ” he said.
He also requested for adequate security along the corridors in view of its importance to early completion of the project.