President Bola Tinubu has approved the reconstitution of the governing board of the FGN Power Company, tasked with implementing the accelerated performance agreement with Siemens Energy.
This comes four months after the governments of Nigeria and Germany signed the Presidential Power Initiative agreement designed to ultimately inject 12,000 MegaWatts of electricity into the national grid.
The Managing Director of the Federal Government of Nigeria Power Company, Kenny Anuwe, and the Managing Director (Africa), Siemens AG, Nadja Haakansson, signed the agreement on the sidelines of the United Nations Climate Change Summit, COP28, in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on December 1, 2023.
At the time, Anuwe and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Siemens Energy AG, Joe Kaeser, revealed that the German government nominated the mandated lead arrangers and financiers, even though Siemens Energy has successfully delivered 10 units of power transformers and 10 units of mobile substations.
The initiative dates back to an initial agreement signed in 2018 under the Muhammadu Buhari administration.
On Thursday, Tinubu also approved the reconstitution and amended structure “to achieve the full end-to-end modernisation of the nation’s electric power transmission grid as part of the Presidential Power Initiative,” read a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale.
The statement is titled, ‘President Tinubu approves reconstitution of the FGN Power Company board of directors.’
By the President’s new directive, the chairmanship of the FGN Power Company Board has been assigned to the Office of the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.
Under the new arrangement, the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, would serve as the board’s Vice-Chairman, while the Managing Director/CEO of the FGN Power Company would serve as a member.
Other members include the Director-General, Bureau for Public Enterprises,
Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria, a representative of the distribution and generation companies, and the President, of the Nigerian Society of Engineers.
Furthermore, President Tinubu approved the removal of the Steering Committee from the governance framework of the FGN Power Company, with full oversight powers granted to the Office of the Minister of Power.
Ngelale said Tinubu approved these changes with “the full expectation that the leaner structure will provide greater organisational agility and efficiency in delivering the complete modernisation of the nation’s electric power transmission grid in collaboration with Siemens Energy for the benefit of all Nigerians.”