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The Bureau of Public Enterprises, on Friday, said it would collaborate with Jindal Steel & Power Group, a global player in steel, mines and infrastructure, in the firm’s areas of interest for investments in Nigeria.
Officials of BPE received senior management representatives of the firm in Abuja, where the bureau used the opportunity to market about six power generation companies with combined capacity of over 3,000 megawatts, Transmission Company of Nigeria, as well as some steel rolling companies to the foreign firm.
The bureau stated in a statement issued in Abuja that a joint committee to work out the modalities for the collaboration was set up, with the Director, Industries and Services BPE, Yunana Malo, heading BPE’s team, while Mukesh Sharma, would head Jindal Steel & Power Group’s team.
Speaking when he received a delegation from the group, led by its Vice Chairman, Mr V. R. Sharma, the Director-General, BPE, Alex Okoh, said there was a lot of potential in Nigeria that matched the areas of interest of the group.
He cited the planned concession of the Zungeru Power Plant, with capacity to generate about 700MW when operational and stated that already, the Federal Government had procured the services of a transaction adviser for its eventual concession.
Okoh told his guests that the planned concession of the Zungeru Dam would be modelled after Kainji and Jebba Dams’ concession and that the successful concessionaire would handle it for a period of 30 years.
On another area of interest for the group, Okoh noted that though the three steel rolling companies in the country – Jos, Katsina and Osogbo – had been privatised, they were not living up to expectations and any effort to rev up the sector would be supported.
He also informed the investors that power, which was their main strong hold, had openings in Nigeria as the Federal Government was on the verge of privatising five of its 10 National Integrated Power Plants, with the combined capacity to generate between 2,300 to 2,500MW.
On the Transmission Company of Nigeria, the BPE boss said despite the unbundling of the power sector by the Federal Government in 2013, resulting into 11 power distribution companies and six ceneration companies, TCN was still being retained by government.
Okoh, however, stated that plans were underway to unbundle the transmission company for more efficiency.
Earlier, the vice chairman of the group had said the courtesy visit was to afford the foreign company the opportunity to have first-hand information on areas of investment in Nigeria.
Sharma noted that Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa and it was the intention of his group to cash in on the country’s vast potential by investing in mines, hydropower and other areas of interest.
The group, according to BPE, was accompanied on the courtesy visit by Ambassador Ahmed Sule, Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri-Lanka.
