- Nigeria’s Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has announced that the federal government has secured a US$500 million World Bank loan to boost electricity distribution in the country.
- The concessionary loan was originally pledge in February 2021 and is designed to improve operations of electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
The loan was approved by senate on May 15 after a request by President Bola Tinubu to finance the mass metering programme of the federal government. “In a strategic move to address the identified gaps in the electricity distribution companies, the Federal Government of Nigeria has secured a $500m loan from the World Bank,” BPE said.
“Approved on February 4, 2021, by the World Bank board of directors, this funding supports the Nigerian Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DISREP) aimed at improving the financial and technical performance of the Discos. The DISREP aims to improve the financial and technical operations of DisCos through capital investment and financing of approved performance improvement plans, approved by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.”
Key areas of improvement include bulk procurement of customer and retail meters and meter data management systems, implementation of a data aggregation platform (DAP), as well as strengthening governance and transparency within the DisCos.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
