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Senate demands suspension of planned concession of Zungeru hydro power

Senate chamber

The Senate yesterday asked the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) and the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) to suspend indefinitely the proposed concession of the 700 megawatts (MW) Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant (ZHPP) in Niger State, pending the conclusion of an investigation by its Committee on Power.

The decision follows a motion sponsored by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Power, Gabriel Suswam, who argued that it will be unacceptable to concession the power plant without ensuring accountability and proper management of unsettled external loans tied to the project.

The motion, titled: “Need for Senate Intervention in the Ongoing Bid to Concession the Zungeru Hydroelectric Power Plant in Niger State,” was also co-sponsored by Yahaya Abdullahi, and supported by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, during plenary.

Abdullahi said the 700MW ZHPP, reputed as the second largest hydroelectric plant in Nigeria after Kainji Hydroelectric Power Station, also in Niger State, “was originally awarded in 2013 in the sum of $1.3billion.”

“Over N43 billion was allocated to the ZHPP under the 2022 Appropriation Act and another N76.5 billion is being proposed by the Executive in the 2023 budget,” he said.

He added that the project was expected to have been completed within 60 months from the date of execution of the contract in 2013, noting that several factors have threatened the speedy completion of the project.

Accordingly, the lawmakers resolved to investigate the utilization of the annual budgetary allocations made to the project, the completion level, and the management of external loans from the Chinese Exim Bank, which is tied to the project.

They will also probe the fate of unsettled host communities where the project is sited, the adequacy or otherwise, of selection criteria for the concessionaire and to generally establish whether the proposed concession of ZHPP to ensure that the government get the deserved value for funds expended on the project.

The Senate President therefore declared that the upper legislative chamber is not in support of the concession, warning that “If anyone approves it, we will reverse it because the Senate is totally against it. Therefore, the NCP and BPE should suspend it.”

Over N43 billion was allocated to the ZHPP under the 2022 Appropriation Act and another N76.5 billion is being proposed by the Executive in the 2023 budget

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