Nigeria is on the verge of signing an agreement to supply electricity to neighbouring Chad Republic.
This followed a meeting between the Minister of Power, Engr. Mamman Sale and the Chadian Minister of Energy, Mrs Ramatou Mahamat Houtouin to explore the possibility of connecting Chad to the Nigerian electricity grid.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which manages the national grid, disclosed on Sunday that the meeting held on October 21.
Earlier, TCN announced in a June 22 statement that the Chadian government formally requested the Nigerian government to connect Chad to the Nigerian electricity grid to ease supply of electricity in Chad.
Benin Republic, Niger Republic and Togo are already connected to Nigeria’s electricity grid.
Meanwhile, many Nigerians have implored President Muhammadu Buhari not to allow electricity export to anymore countries since Nigeria is still battlling with epileptic power supply.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, has not been able to generate up to 5,000 megawatts in a long while, as actual generation has hovered between 3,000MW to 4,5000MW in recent years.
Electricity generated in the country fell to 3,474.5MW as of 6am on Sunday from 3,776.5MW on Saturday, The Punch reported, quoting data from the Nigerian Electricity System Operator.
As a result, many homes and businesses remain without power.
Reacting to the planned agreement, Senator Shehu Sani said, “The idea of the FG exporting electricity to Chad in the midst of our ‘national darkness’ is absurd.”
Umar Sa’ad Hassan said, “Power generation is at 3474 MWs after over N4trn spent.That is below the heights reached under a GEJ Buhari was supposed to be an upgrade to..Now we’re considering adding Chad to Niger,Togo & Benin as countries we supply electricity to.Electricity Nigerians themselves don’t have.”
Another Nigerian who tweets from @Letter_To_Jack wrote, “Nigerians don’t enjoy stable electricity. Togo, Benin and Niger are still owing us N30billion for the electricity we’ve supplied to them, we are now considering doing power charity with Chad. We are such a silly country.”