A private firm, Eta-Zuma Group West Africa Limited, has announced an investment outlay of $6bn to boost Nigeria’s electricity generation by 1,200 Megawatts.

The Chairman of the company, Dr. Innocent Ezuma, made the announcement during a press briefing in Abuja on Friday.

Ezuma, who was represented by Executive Director, Corporate Services, Ambassador Joseph Ayalogu, said the 1,200MW would be generated from coal, which the company is already mining in Kogi State.

He also stated that the company had acquired another licence from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency to generate additional 400MW from gas.

Ezuma said 90 per cent of the work on the development stages had been completed and expressed confidence that the remaining agreements would be completed before the year runs out to enable the actual construction of the coal power plant to begin.

According to him, the first phase of the construction for the 400MW plant will take 30 months, adding that the subsequent phases would take lesser time to complete.

The Eta-Zuma boss also announced a N500m Community Development Fund spread across five years for the benefit of the communities that host the company’s coal mine in Kogi State.

Ezuma, whose firm acquired the Jos Steel Complex from the Federal Government in 2006, said the steel complex had not been able to go into production because of lack of guaranteed electricity supply.

To resolve the situation, he added that the company resolved to build a captive power plant that would ensure that the steel complex would get the guaranteed 100MW of electricity it required to be in production.

He said, “We have opened an active mine in Okobo, Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State and currently mine 50,000 metric tonnes of coal per month. We have the capacity to double that as demand increases.

“We are the leading suppliers of premium quality coal to Nigeria’s industrial end users, including Dangote and Zuma Energy coal-to-power project under development, which will supply 1,200MW of electricity to the grid.”

He added, “The Eta-Zuma Group and its sister-client companies have invested over $300m so far in various projects even though they are still at their development stages. The 1,200MW coal-to-power will require about $6bn to actualise.”

Energywatchngr