Author: The Nation

Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) has embarked on its capital projects for the business year.

The company, in a statement by its General Manager Corporate Communication Godwin Idemudia, said the projects include the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, and maintenance of installations across its distribution network.

He said the projects once completed would help the company to achieve, among other things, network improvement, increase reliability and quality of supply, allow flexibility for evacuation of additional power, address safety issues and relieve overloaded transformers and substations.

Idemudia said some of the projects include the construction and rehabilitation of eight injection substations. Projects that fall under this category include the “upgrade of Keffi substation, reactivation of  NTDA injection substation, Ajah, Upgrade of Ajah local substation, construction of a new Surulere injection substation, upgrade of Trade Fair  injection substation, construction of Olugborogun injection substation, Lekki, replacement of failed power transformer at Agbara Injection substation, upgrade of Agungi station for higher capacity”.

Idemudia added that the company is also projected to procure 217 500KVA transformers which will be distributed across its 10 districts.

“During the same period, the company has also committed to the construction of five new 33kv feeders that will cut across areas like Surulere, FESTAC, Ojo and Lekki, while 24 33kv feeders at Ikoyi, Lekki, Ibeju, Elemoro, Eleko, Apapa, Orile, FESTAC and Agbara will be rehabilitated.

“About five new 11kv feeders are expected to be deployed to Lekki, Ajah and Ojo to relieve overloaded feeders, while a total of 167 11kv feeder will be rehabilitated across our distribution network,” he added.

Idemudia concluded by noting that the implementation of the projects is a demonstration of the Company’s commitment to service excellence and fulfil its promise of reliable and consistent supply to its customers.

By Daniel Essiet

The Private Infrastructure Development Group’s (PIDG), promoters of the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) loan, has hit $1 billion.

PIDG is an innovative infrastructure development and finance organisation delivering pioneering infrastructure in the poorest and most fragile countries.

A statement said  EAIF by last year, had  signed eight new projects, bringing the loans to $1.04 billion. It is committed $243 million in new loans to businesses in digital and telecommunications, energy generation, manufacturing, transportation and logistics and bulk storage. It can lend between $10 and $65 million to 10 infrastructure sectors.

In Nigeria, EAIF backed a project by Indorama Eleme to improve productivity and energy conservation at its Port Harcourt fertiliser plant. In August 2018, EAIF provided $35 million loan to Indorama Eleme Fertiliser & Chemicals Ltd (IEFCL).

The transaction was  part of the financing of a $1.1 billion expansion of the company’s fertiliser plant at Port Harcourt. The new plant was built alongside the facility. It doubled the company’s output yearly to 2.8 million metric tonnes.

EAIF had previously provided loans worth $48.8 million towards construction of IEFCL’s first Port Harcourt fertiliser plant, which now operates at full capacity. It supports the Federal Government’s initiative to eliminate the importation of urea and to meet rising local demand for urea fertiliser.

Also, EAIF provided $30 million loans to the $865 million Azura-Edo plant and played a key role in structuring the financing.

Construction of phase one began in 2016 with power being first produced in May 2018.

The project won the 2015 Thomson Reuters PFI African Public/Private Partnership Award.The power plant supplies 3.7 million households (approximately 22 million people) and numerous businesses. Many consumers are able to access electricity from the national grid for the first time and at lower cost than off-grid energy.

Tom Greenwood, Chief Financial Officer at Helios Towers, said following the successful London issue: “EAIF’s presence as anchor investor was an important signal to private investors and instrumental to the positive market sentiment that greeted the issue. Their anchor investment helped us to effectively reopen the African corporate debt capital market. EAIF has been a wholly supportive backer of Helios Towers since its creation. Once again, we are delighted to have it involved in our success.”

Since 2002, the fund has   created more than 240,000 long-term jobs and provided 231 million people with access to new or improved infrastructure.

By Muyiwa Lucas

The Managing Director LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, has said the best way to move Nigeria and its economy forward is to embrace local content, being championed in the oil industry by the Nigeria Content Development Management Board (NCDMB).

According to her, local content will boost the economy, if Nigerians were allowed and offered the opportunity to exhibit their talents, stressing that local content would always be reliable and cheaper in the sustainability of any given organisation during and after the pandemic.

In a statement by the company, Lagos, Jadesimi said Nigerians are reliable, competent, and efficient in service delivery when compete  with their foreign counterparts, stressing that, at a cheaper cost, Nigerians were able to handle more complex task during the pandemic.

“Local content is the best way to go. Look at what happened during the pandemic; the oil companies and their expatriates have to send their workers back to their countries, but Nigerians and Nigeria proved themselves because things that were not supposed to be handed over to them ordinarily were later handled exclusively by Nigerians .

Jadesimi said the offshore logistics firm was able to survive the dreaded coronavirus pandemic last year, due to local capacity, adding that the company also invested hugely on infrastructure, equipment, security, and personnel.

The Managing Director reiterated that the company was interested in investing on human capacity because Nigeria in the future would be one of the focal points where people would invest due to the potential and opportunities that are abound.

She said most businesses were focusing on how to survive due to the pandemic saying LADOL was not an exception.

She emphasised that year 2020 was a very tough year for investors but noted that the company was basically poised to invest massively on human capacity .

“Our plans at the moment is to bring back many staff as possible as the market picks up and that is very important to us because we invest a lot on people and our staff in terms of training. There is no staff that has left that we don’t want to bring back because like I always say to people, this market is big but at the same time small. I think that going forward this year, we are hoping that by Q4, we will start to see some of these up-scale and that will trigger significant hiring like probably a hundred additional people based on current projection.

According to her, LADOL was well positioned during the global pandemic as it was able to reduce cost in the sustenance of operations with increased policies and procedures to soothe the current realities associated with the pandemic.

While speaking on Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), Jaiyesimi expressed hopes that the trade agreement would favour Nigeria in terms of private sector participation in the market pointing out that Nigeria will not be used as a dumping ground as earlier speculated.

“It is the private sector participation that will drive the huge benefits for Nigeria and Nigerians in AFCFTA. We want to see more accountability, transparency, access to the markets and particularly with the small and medium sizes participation in the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement.

“80% of jobs will come from the small and medium size enterprises because these are the companies that will make sure that we get the maximum economic benefits from Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement.”

Jadesimi noted that with adaptation to government policies, LADOL was able to establish an isolation center under Apapa Local Government adding that with teamwork, LADOL was able to scale through the hurdles of COVID19 .

By John Ofikhenua, Abuja

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday said Nigeria’s inflation rate stood at 18.12 per cent last month.

According to its data entitled: “Consumer Price Index Report April 2021”, the rate is 0.05 per cent lower that the 18.17 per cent recorded the previous month.

According to the document, “The Consumer Price (CPI), which measures inflation increased by 18.12 per cent (year -on-year) in April, 2021. This is 0.05 per cent points lower than the rate recorded in March 2021 (18.17) per cent’’.

The NBS noted that in the period under review, increases were recorded in all Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) divisions that yielded the Headline index.

Monthly, the bureau said the Headline index increased by 0.97 per cent last month, this is 0.59 per cent rate lower than the rate recorded in March (1.56 percent).

The NBS added that the percentage change in the average composite CPI for the 12-month period ending April 2021 over the CPI  for the previous 12-month period was 15.04 per cent, showing 0.48 per cent point from 14.55 per cent recorded in March.

Continuing, the data said: “The urban inflation rate increased by 18.68 per cent (year-on-year) in April 2021 from 18.76 per cent recorded in March 2021, while the rural inflation rate increased by 17.57 per cent in April 2021 from 17.60 per cent in March 2021.

“On a month-on-month basis, the urban index rose by 0.99 per cent in April 2021, down by 0.61 the rate recorded in March 2021(1.60), while the rural index also rose by 0.95 per cent in April 2021, down by 0.57 the rate that was recorded in March 2021 (1.52) per cent.”

“The corresponding 12 months year -on-year average per cent change for the urban index is 15.63 per cent in April 2021.

“This is higher than 15.15 per cent reported in March 2021, while the corresponding rural inflation rate in April 2021 is 14.48 per cent compared to 13.99 per cent recorded in March 2021”.