The Pan Africa Solar Ltd, an Abuja and London based solar developing company, says its 75 Mega Watts (MW) solar power project in Katsina, when completed, will provide power for 1.1 million Nigerians in the state.
The Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr Marcus Heal, disclosed this to newsmen on the sideline of the Annual Powering Africa Nigeria Summit in Abuja on Friday.
He said the project, conceived in 2012, was part of its 5,000MW utility scale solar projects in Nigeria. Heal said the company was the first among other solar developers in the country to sign a Power Project Agreement (PPA) with the government.
“We are the first to obtain a licence in this country and we are very proud to hopefully be the first to commission a large scale utility solar project in Katsina State.
“ He said the construction of the project, which would begin in January 2018, would provide employment for nearly 1,000 people.
“This projects, because they are solar, they are quite fast to built, so the building programme is about eight or nine months and we will have to deliver the programme within the term of this presidency.
“ He said that the company was also developing another solar power project, tagged pay-as-you-go project. He said that the project was designed to provide electricity for 93 million Nigerians that were not connected to the national grid.
“ We also have a second business, which is the home scale pay as you go project.
“We now have a few 100 units; this project started six months ago, we got a few 100 units that have been deplored in Kano; we have finished our pilot, we are very proud to receive a cheque from Energy net which is going to transform our business .
“These projects can be expanded across northern Nigeria and into neighboring states like Niger; we believe that there is a crucial business for the 93 million people in Nigeria that don’t have access to the grid.
“We are developing utility scale projects which help people to have access to the grid for the 93 million that don’t have access; we have a home scale business called pay as you go; this will transform the lives of people in the very rural communities where their income is one dollar or two a day.
“ He said access to the solar power, when completed, would attract 7 dollars per month from would-be users of the electricity.
“With about 7 dollars per a month, they can have power, they can power lights in the house four to six electric bulbs, they can power radio, USB charger; they can power their television set, and they can have internet.
“ He said the company was currently receiving grants to execute its projects from the Solar Nigeria programme, a DFID funded organisation, and other international organisations . He said that the funding from the international agencies was a source of foreign direct investment into Nigeria.
NAN