The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and the Jindal Steel & Power Group (a leading world player in Steel, Mines and Infrastructure) are exploring investment opportunities in Nigeria.
Already, a joint committee to work out the modalities for the exercise has been set up with the Director, Industries and Services at the BPE, Mr. Yunana Jackdel Malo heading the agency’s team, while Mr. Mukesh Sharma will head the Jindal Steel & Power Group’s team.
This followed the visit of a delegation of the Jindal Group, led by its Vice Chairman, Mr. V. R Sharma to the BPE, in the week, according to a statement by the Bureau’s spokesman, Mr. Chidi Ibe, yesterday.
The delegation was led by its Vice Chairman, Mr V. R. Sharma.
He quoted the Director-General of the BPE, Mr. Alex Okoh, as expressing the federal government readiness to work with the investors with a view to bringing life to the nation’s steel industry.
Mr. Okoh said that there were a lot of potentials in the country in areas of interest for the group.
He said that although the three Steel Rolling Companies in the country—Jos, Katsina and Osogbo- had been privatised, they were not living up to expectations and that any effort to rev up the sector would be supported.
Mr..Okoh cited among others, the planned concession of the Zungeru Power Plant which has the capacity to generate about 700 Megawatts when operational and said that already, the government had procured the services of a Transaction Adviser for its eventual concession.
The D-G revealed that the planned concession of the Zungeru Dam would be modelled after that of Kainji and Jebba Dams’ concessions and that the successful concessionaire would handle it for a period of 30 years.
He also told the investors that electricity which is Jindal’s main area of strength, was open for massive investments in the country as the Federal Government was at the verge of privatising five of its ten National Integrated Power Plants (NIPPs).
The NIPPs have the combined capacity to generate between 2,300-2,500 megawatts.
On the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the Director General said that despite the unbundling of the power sector by the Federal Government in 2013, resulting into 11 Power Distribution Companies and six Generation Companies, TCN was still being retained by the Federal Government but that plans were underway to unbundle it for more efficiency.
Earlier, the Vice Chairman of the Group, Mr. V. R. Sharma said the visit was to afford the group the opportunity to receive first-hand information on areas of investment in Nigeria.
He noted that Nigeria was the largest economy in Africa and that his group wanted to take advantage of the large market to invest in Mines, Hydro Power and other areas of interest.
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