Former Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji has revealed that Nigeria still gives a certain quantity of electricity to Niger and Republic of Benin as part of efforts to build regional integration in the West African Sub Region.
Nnaji while speaking at a special session of a just-concluded power conference in Lagos said “Nigeria gives power to Niger Republic. Niger’s Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Foumakoye Gado is here to agree that we do. And the way it works is that if you have a country-to-country agreement, then that power must go to the other country, no matter what, unless your system totally collapses. But by agreement, it must go.
“We give power to Benin Republic and there is plan to increase it. There is plan to build a 330 KV transmission line from Lagos to Republic of Benin to increase power supply to that country. So, these are things that help government to support the integration we are talking about.
“But we are all talking as part of the power pool. We also have a regulator. The beginning of progress is when you have a regulator. If you have the regulator, then you can begin to put things together and that is already in place in the case of West Africa. So, we do have support of the various governments.”