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Tag: GE

  • Foundation, GE, Belgium partner to boost tech start-ups

    International not-for-profit organisation, Youth for Technology Foundation (YTF), through its 3D Africa programme, in partnership with GE Lagos Garage  and Belgian government have partnered to boost youth-led tech start-ups in the country.

    To achieve this, the organisations  hosted a pitch and networking session in Lagos for local youth-led tech start-ups and entrepreneurs.

    The event, titled: Building a viable hardware ecosystem in Nigeria, was held at the GE Lagos Garage. Pitches from youth-led technology start-ups and scale-ups were presented to the Belgian Minister of Digital Agenda, Philippe De Backer, and his Silicon Lagoon Mission delegation and guests comprised local and international entrepreneurs, investors, representatives from private-sector companies, and non-profits.

    The event also featured a presentation from the prestigious Solvay Business School of Belgium about entrepreneurial projects related to student trade missions and internships.

    De Backer, who was accompanied by a delegation of Belgian start-ups, entrepreneurs, non-profits, and journalists, said he was around with the mission to connect with the country’s vibrant technology start-up community, explore partnership potential, and raise awareness about digital for development opportunities in Africa’s most prominent tech hub.

    Apart from the pitch presentations, participants also had the opportunity to network with players in youth-led startups and scale-ups in the technology space, entrepreneurs, investors, private sector companies and academics amongst others.

    Youth for Technology Foundation/3D Africa CEO, Njideka Harry, said the session was a continuation of the organisation’s objective of equipping the next gen with the skills necessary to excel in the world of work.

    “It is about empowering the next generation of leaders to enter the workforce with the skills they need to access employment or create their entrepreneurial opportunities in the fourth industrial revolution. Our programmes utilise technology to inspire youth and women in developing nations to create innovative solutions to the challenges they encounter, and we are pleased to have been able to collaborate with GE Garage for this initiative,” she said.

  • GE to sell biopharma business for $21.4b

    Industrial conglomerate, General Electric (GE), yesterday said it would sell its biopharma business to Danaher Corporation for $21.4 billion, its first major asset sale under new Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp.

    Its shares surged more than 15 per cent after the announcement.

    The deal will provide GE with a much-needed cash infusion as the maker of power plants and aircraft engines struggles to pay off billions of dollars of debt and insurance liabilities.

    The company, once a symbol of American business power and management prowess, has struggled with crisis-era losses linked to its finance arm, forcing it to divest its non-core businesses and return to its industrial roots.

    While divestitures have given the company funds to rebuild itself, its more than $100 billion debt and stagnating growth have left investors and Wall Street analysts concerned about its prospects.

    But Culp’s appointment in October rekindled hopes of GE’s return to profitability, with its shares up 34 percent this year.

    Culp said the sale to Danaher, where he was instrumental in revitalising the company as its CEO, was a pivotal milestone in efforts to turn around the 126-year old conglomerate.

    “It demonstrates that we are executing on our strategy by taking thoughtful and deliberate action to reduce leverage and strengthen our balance sheet,” Culp said.

    The biopharma sale also propelled a broad rally in GE’s roughly $120 billion of bonds, which had taken a pounding late last year as it became clear that earlier restructuring efforts were falling short and that the company would need to take more aggressive action to address its debt load in particular.

    “Culp has earned his stripes. It is clear that nobody in his job before him – John Flannery or Jeff Immelt – would have probably been able to pull off this transaction with Danaher.

    “And the price Danaher is paying GE is two times our expectations. This is a home run. It really turns the page now for GE to address liquidity concerns,” William Blair & Co analyst Nicholas Heymann said.

    Until recently, the company had plans to spin off the entire healthcare unit. Culp, however, said in January GE would sell nearly half of the unit.

    Sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday that GE will put the initial public offering of the unit on hold until the deal with Danaher closes, expected in the second half of the year.

    This would mean that GE is likely to retain access to the earnings and cash flows of the remaining healthcare businesses for a longer period of time, alleviating some cash concerns, even as the power business struggles, said Rene Lipsch, lead GE analyst at Moody’s.

    The purchase is also the biggest yet for Danaher, which has a history of deal-making, and half of its revenue has come from companies it has acquired in the past seven years.

    The deal will expand Danaher’s presence in the biopharma industry, providing it with access to tools for research and development of drugs. Shares of the medical equipment maker rose more than nine per cent to a record $124.07.

    Danaher expects to add 45 cents to 50 cents per share to its adjusted profit in the first full-year after the deal closes, and does not expect any “significant” anti-trust challenges.

  • GE: Exit from Nigeria’s rail deal, least of its woes

    Less than two decades ago, GE was one of the choicest companies to invest in corporate America. Its net worth then was about $600billion, equivalent of the GDP of Belgium, equalling the market value of Facebook, and as well the combined market value of Boeing, the giant American aircraft manufacturer, 3M and Honeywell put together. All that is now history going by the litany of woes that have now become the lot of the corporation.

    Due to series of events arising from its unbridled expansionist appetite and acquisitive drive, management failure and investor reaction, dictated by market trends, the once-sought-after GE and its stocks, have fallen, nose-diving to an abysmally low market value of just $100billion. Even at that, no one can put a bet that the stock price would not fall further.

    GE’s disengagement from its rail concession agreement with Nigeria is just one of several failed deals it had struck with clients across the globe, including the power generation contract it signed with the Kaduna State government that never saw the light of day. The failure of the American conglomerate to see its rail contract through with the federal government, just goes to prove that the days of this erstwhile global player in several sectors, spanning health, power, insurance, finance  and aircraft engines, among others, are numbered.

    The 9/11 Al-Qaeda terrorist attack in 2001 was the beginning of the dwindling in fortunes of GE, as the incident badly hurt its jet-engine and insurance businesses, but events in the last couple of years have been particularly brutal and punitive.

    In just under two years (2017-2018), GE’s shares fell 80 per cent, 45 per cent of that was recorded in 2017 after cash-flow shortages and weak sales in its power unit. Following other incidences, the shares have further crashed another 35 per cent so far this year. The consequence of this development was that GE, a 100 years’ old company, lost its place in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in June, this year. In response, more investors dumped the stock.

    Not done, just three months ago, in mid-September, the conglomerate, took a sharp dive when new questions arose over its critical power segment business. Investors were taken aback and scared by GE’s acknowledgment that its flagship gas turbine was suffering from an “oxidation issue” that prompted a customer to temporarily shut down two U.S. power plants. Although the company said a solution has been found, the continuous slide in its fortune, even as late as three weeks ago, is a reflection of waning investor confidence in the once cherished GE.

    Added to this, is the frequency of CEO turnover. In just about two years, three chief executives have taken turns, another indication that there’s haemorrhage somewhere. Welch, Jeffrey Immelt, Flannery, and still counting. These have taken measures they deemed fit, including plans to narrow GE’s focus to only aviation, power generation and renewable energy, as well as looking to shrink the bulk of the remaining finance operations that took a massive hit in the 2008 financial crisis.

    Sadly, none of these rejuvenated the stock, leaving short-term investors waiting for the slightest chance to offload. GE has become the third-largest short among industrial conglomerates, coming behind Toshiba and 3M in receding influence and reckoning. And still no respite.

    The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ), have turned their prying eyes on GE in an investigation, leaving stakeholders wondering what the outcome of these portend for the company. As admitted by GE, the US federal government is probing a $22 billion accounting write down of the slumping power division. The huge charge, analysts posit, reflects the deterioration of businesses GE acquired. GE said it is providing the Justice Department and the SEC with documents and other information requested, as they continue their work on these matters. Again, GE shares retreated to a nine-year low on the disclosure of the news of the federal government’s investigation, with analysts saying the development is going to be a cloud that overhangs the company until things get cleaned up.

    The SEC and Justice Department often work closely together when investigating potential financial crimes. If the SEC finds something “problematic”, it typically shares that with Justice Department investigators. In general, the DOJ becomes interested when it looks like there is some effort to conceal the true health of a company. If the Justice Department finds wrongdoing, prosecutors could consider a wide range of charges against former and current GE employees, including fraud, making false statements and conspiracy.

    The investigations have deepened GE’s legal troubles. The company faces at least three different inquiries from the SEC as well as two from the Department of Justice. This what the new CEO, Larry Culp, the first outsider CEO in the company’s 126-year-history and successor to John Flannery will have to contend with. “It’s definitely unusual. I don’t know of companies that I cover that have that many investigations going on,” said Windau, a US Attorney.

    GE announced in January that the SEC was investigating its accounting tactics as well as a $6.2 billion insurance loss that caught shareholders off guard.

    In 2009, the SEC charged GE with accounting fraud, alleging the company used “overly aggressive accounting” to make false and misleading statements to investors. GE paid $50 million to settle charges, but it neither admitted nor denied wrongdoing.

    The Justice Department is also investigating WMC, a subprime mortgage business that GE shut down in 2007.

    Part of GE’s romance with the Nigerian government in the rail concession deal, was to create a new funding paradigm and act as an inducement for other private sector investors in the nation’s quest to revamp its decaying infrastructure across the various economic sectors.

    It was also aimed at creating hundreds of primary and secondary job opportunities for the transportation industry. But that was as far as hope could go. Right now, the hope of creating jobs in that sector with GE’s collaboration is now a façade. GE can’t offer any bailout of itself in America, talk less of Nigeria.

    GE may have once been a thriving $600billion conglomerate, but the reality today is that the enterprise is a failed or failing entity.

    • Odoziaku writes from Abuja.

  • Will GE’s withdrawal affect narrow gauge deal?

    Power giant General Electric (GE) has withdrawn from the railway narrow gauge concession one year after it ought to have rolled out new wagons on the tracks. What is the implication of its withdrawal for the project?ADEYINKA ADERIBIGBE writes

    The nation’s march to a modernised rail system, especially its centennial asset- the narrow gauge – appears halted as power giant General Electric opted out of the concession deal.

    GE’s action ended speculation about its preparedness to take over the assets which the Federal Government has been showcasing as one of its poster projects.

    GE said it was opting out of the concession because of its decision to remove transportation business from its portfolio. Its decision to drop transportation from its portfolio was to enable it concentrate on its core competence – healthcare and power generation.

    In May 2016, the government announced GE as the preferred bidder for the project.

    Under the agreement, GE was to inject $2.7 billion into the narrow gauge modernisation programme, including the tracks and provision of the rolling stock.

    It was to introduce 20 locomotives and 200 wagons within the first 12 months  of the takeoff of the temporary agreement. By the second year, it would strip the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) of all its rail assets as it consolidates on the modernisation, while the corporation operate as the regulator.

    Initially, a roll out had been fixed for May last year. Rather, what commenced were series of meetings by the Transaction Advisory Committee (TAC), government appointed consultants with the new operator.

    The Minister of Transportation Mr Rotimi Amaechi changed the take-off date to December last year. Again it failed.

    Amaechi had insisted private investors into the railway was in line with global best practices.

    “While the government owns the rail tracks, investors are usually encouraged to own the rolling stocks, both passengers and cargoes.”

    With its links to the nation’s productive centres, the narrow gauge will assist in the rapid development of the agriculture, mining and steel sectors and link same directly to the sea ports for export.

    Again, the continuous rehabilitation of the narrow gauge network will no longer be at any cost to the government. Outside the 1,100 kilometres Western line, (Lagos-Kano narrow gauge track), regarded as the most lucrative route and the nation’s major rail backbone, which includes Lagos, Abeokuta, Ibadan,  Ilorin, Kano, Funtua, Zaria, and Kaura-Namoda, the GE would also take over the Eastern line – Port Harcourt-Maiduguri route, which includes Port Harcourt, Aba, Umuahia, Enugu, Makurdi, Jos, Gombe and Bauchi to Borno State.

    “The activation of the narrow gauge was meant to grow freight movement exponentially. We have over 30 million tons worth of freight on the Lagos-Kano route for which presently we are moving slightly above 1,000 tons. While the Port-Harcourt-Maiduguri route is currently moving nothing, we are anticipating 11 million tons on that route,” Amaechi had said.

    That was why GE had opted for cargo as its preferred choice of line of trade. It proposed to move one million tons of freight in the first year and outstrip as importers are explore the new deal.

    The new proposition is a departure from government’s projections, which had wanted to have more friendly passenger shuttle. Intercity shuttle, as presently run, is epileptic with the rusty coaches, driven by aging locomotives that take no fewer than 72 hours travel time between Lagos-Kano.

    “This is absolutely unacceptable. The railway system will not be able to attract any quality passenger traffic with such tradition. We must look at fast-tracking things at the railway,” Amaechi said.

    The journey of General Electric’s intervention in the nation’s rail sector started in 2009, when it signed a Country-to-Company (C2C) agreement with the Federal Government to support the financing, design and building of infrastructure and capacity across the rail, power and healthcare.

    This agreement was renewed for another five years at the Head of States conference in Washington, DC in 2014, a deal which was inherited by the Buhari administration in 2015.

    Under the agreement, company is to partner with the Ministry of Power to develop 10GW power over the next 10 years, assist the Ministry of Health to develop diagnostic centres across the country, and help the Ministry of Transportation in the modernisation and expansion of the nation’s locomotive assets.

    On its website www.ge.com/africa the firm said “Its milestones in the transportation sector in the last five years include the modernisation and expansion of Nigeria’s locomotive fleet. Right now, GE is working with private sector participants to develop a locomotive assembly facility. That facility would modernise 30 old locomotive engines and assemble 170 new locomotives. The company is also acting on the order to supply locomotives to the Nigerian Rail Corporation (NRC) as part of the country’s fleet renewal programme.

    GE however said its decision to walk away from the sector would have no adverse effect on the ambitious move to modernise the almost moribund narrow gauge sub-sector of the rail business which is already plagued by rotted fixed asset – rail tracks and aging rolling stocks -locomotives, coaches and wagons.

    It claimed its exit would not affect the concessionning plan, as other consortia of firms in the agreement would continue the assignment. In a terse response to The Nation‘s enquiries, Yewande Thorpe, of GE Global stated: “GE will be transitioning leadership of the International Consortium, selected to execute the Nigerian narrow-gauge railway concession, to Transnet. This development is in line with GE’s decision to exit the Transportation business from its portfolio. Transnet has been a trusted partner of GE for several decades.  We have confidence in their ability and that of the other Consortium members to execute on the rail concession project successfully. We will continue to offer our utmost support to the team as we remain committed to the sustainable development of Nigeria.”

    In order words, GE would be transferring the concessioning to Transnet International is a member of a four- firm consortia led by GE, which had been holding series of meetings with FG’s Transaction Advisers over the take-over model of the narrow gauge. Other members are: APMT Ltd, and Sino Hydro.

    While Transnet handles the modernising of the tracks, APMT handles the container cargoes, while Sino Hydro handles the operationalising of the locomotives that would be provided by the principal partner – General Electric.

    But the process until this present impasse had been fraught with perceived irregularities. Twice last year, Amaechi had publicly complained about “GE’s inconsistencies,” alleging that the conglomerate had “been less than transparent in its dealings with the government.”

    The GE swiftly denied such allegations, claiming it remained committed to changing the ugly narrative in the rail subsector of the transportation system. Its Executive, Business Development, (Transportation, Nigeria) Mr. Eyo Ekpo, told The Nation that the consortium was still “actively engaged in negotiations with the Federal Ministry of Transportation.

    Ekpo, however, disclosed that in the last one year, GE and its consortium partners – Transnet, SinoHydro &APM Terminals, have not only negotiated in good faith, but have invested significant resources. “We have been transparent and diligent in meeting all requests from the government at no cost to the Federal Government,” Ekpo said.

    According to him, both parties – GE (and its consortia) and the Federal Government, are at a critical juncture of the project and it expects all contractual agreements to be finalised and fulfilled by the parties before commencing project execution.

    A top NRC source hinted that long before GE divested from transportation, it had thrown a number of hurdles before the transaction advisory committee which led to an impasse.

    The source which preferred not to be mentioned, said: “While the concession agreement had covered Lagos to Kano, GE had insisted on shuttling between Apapa and EBJ (Ebute Metta junction). Again, while the Nigerian government would want full bouquet of services -passenger and cargo services, GE had insisted it would only run freight services. These are issues that are still being negotiated before GE threw in the towel,” the source added.

    GE’s withdrawal may however have thrown the window open for fresh negotiations for new bidders. Mr Patrick Adenusi saw this possibility when he said, GE’s withdrawal might thrown spanner into the nation’s march into a modernized narrow gauge system.

    According to him, when the picture becomes clearer, the National Assembly might pass a resolution requesting the executive government to begin the process for the award of the concession again in view of GE’s withdrawal from the deal.

    Though Amaechi seemed to have foreclosed this possibility last week when he disclosed that the government would be willing to continue negotiation with the other parties to the concession agreement. But even if this is accepted would the consortia be willing to accept the government’s terms, or would they be insisting on working within Lagos alone or interested only in freight services as being championed by GE?

    The reality: Nigerians may just have to wait much longer for the modernisation of the narrow gauge to materialise.

     

  • GE cuts dividend, splits power business

    General Electric Co slashed its quarterly dividend to just one per cent per share and said it was reorganising its power unit into two businesses as new Chief Executive Larry Culp took his first steps to revive the struggling conglomerate.

    GE reported a $22.8 billion loss for the third quarter on Tuesday due to a writedown in the value of its GE Power business.

    “My priorities in my first 100 days are positioning our businesses to win, starting with Power, and accelerating deleveraging,” Culp said in the results statement.

    “We are moving with speed to improve our financial position, starting with the actions announced today. I look forward to updating you further on our progress in early 2019.”

    The decision of the US government to grant waivers to eight countries from Iran sanctions is expected to have a bearish impact on oil prices, analysts said.

  • FIRS to GE: show evidence of $2m tax remittenace

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has demanded evidence that General Electric International Operations Nigeria Ltd remitted the excessive tax it withheld from Arco Group Plc, a Nigerian oil servicing company, for nine years.

    It was  alleged that GE withheld tax of over $3 million from its payments to Arco for services rendered between 2006 and 2015.

    GE deducted 10 per cent as withholding tax for a servicing contract from 2006 to 2015 — as against the five per cent stipulated by Nigerian laws.

    Arco had petitioned FIRS seeking explanation over the deductions, and the Executive Chairman, Tunde Fowler, wrote five per cent while the one for rental accommodation was 10 per cent.

    Not satisfied with Fowler’s response, GE engaged the services of tax consultants, PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd, who insisted that what Arco offered was “technical services” and the appropriate rate was 10 per cent.

    PwC contended that Arco’s services rendered by manpower were technical in nature because of the involvement of “craftsmen” and “technical specialists”.

    According to The Cable, in the letter written by PwC’s Director of Tax and Regulatory Services, Chijioke Uwaegbute, the consultants said five per cent was the applicable rate, the revenue service should confirm the treatment of the excessive deductions.

    Fowler, in his response dated July 26, 2018, said the FIRS circular in question classified the supply of personnel, personnel protective equipment and uniforms, office equipment and furniture, vehicles and fueling as contained in the contract document could only be charged five per cent withholding tax (WHT).

    The deductible rate for site accommodation or rent, he said, was 10 per cent.

    Fowler then demanded evidence that GE remitted the WHT deducted from Arco over the nine-year period.

    Arco can apply for a refund of the excess deduction, he said, “so long there is evidence of remittance to FIRS account”.

    He further said GE must make available to Arco “all outstanding WHT Credit Notes in respect of remittances made in its favour”.

    General Electric previously said it would not comment “due to the confidentiality provisions” governing the contract it had with Arco.

    The sums in contention are €56,577.61, $2,923,642.36  and N360,482,041.19.

  • GE, NDPHC partner on power delivery

    General Electric (GE) said it intends to collaborate with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) on the development of an End-To-End Power Intervention (EEIP).

    This followed a signing of a Letter of Intention (LoI) by both parties during the France-Nigeria Business Forum in Lagos. The signing was witnessed by the French Secretary of State to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Delphine Geny-Stephann.

    GE’s EEIP is aimed at delivering incremental power from the NIPP’s underutilised or stranded capacity to several industrial and commercial hubs through multiple solutions across the entire electricity value chain. Under the agreement, GE will provide End-to-End power solutions across the value chain to deliver 2.5GW of power. The company will also provide financing support for the power projects including funding for the refurbishment of distribution and transmission infrastructure amongst other critical support services to analyze and improve the power value chain. The LoI also states the willingness of BPIFrance (the French export credit agency) to provide financing support given that the technology to be deployed in this project will be manufactured in GE Power’s facilities in France.h

    The collaboration will see NDPHC partner with GE to work with Discos, TCN and other relevant stakeholders, to identify and prioritize critical projects to reduce technical and commercial losses. The focus will be on the expansion, repair and upgrade of all critical transmission and distribution infrastructure.

     

  • GE: we provide 75% of Nigeria’s gas-powered generation

    GE Technology provides over 75 per cent of the country’s gas-powered on-grid generation, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Gas Power Business, sub-Saharan Africa, Mr. Leslie Nelson, has said.

    GE Power is a world energy leader that provides technology, solutions and services across the entire energy value chain from the point of generation to consumption.

    Nelson said the global energy giant provides over 75 per cent of the gas-powered on-grid generation, with more than 3GW of heavy duty and fuel-flexible gas turbines at nine power plants.

    Some of the power plants include Omotosho I & II power plants, as well as GE’s innovative trailer-mounted gas turbines being installed at the Afam III Fast Power plant.

    Nelson said GE is committed to Nigeria’s Vision 2020, adding that the firm has signed a country-to-company agreement with the Federal Government to support the development of up to 10 Gigawatts (GW) of power.

    He also said GE has hit 100th power plant installation milestone in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). According to him, the company has  installed over 300 turbines in up to 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Apart from Nigeria, Ghana also benefited from GE’s power plant installation. Over 70 per cent of the thermal power in Ghana runs on GE technology, with over 600 megawatts (Mws) added to the grid in the last 24 months, with an additional 900Mw planned over the next two years.

    Nelson also said about 80 per cent of Angola’s gas-powered generation runs on GE technology, providing energy for up to two million Angolan households.

    GE and the Angola Ministry of Energy and Water are set to achieve the country’s additional electric power generation capacity target of 2000Mw.

    Similarly, Kenya’s 1050Mw Lamu power project will use GE’s ultra-super critical technology to deliver superior efficiency and lowest emissions.

    The project will guarantee that up to 30 per cent of electricity produced in Kenya is reliable base load power.

    Nelson said in South Africa, GE is deploying smarter, cleaner, steam technology at the Medupi and Kusile Power plants. Kusile is the first wet flue gas desulphurisation plant in the continent and has 93 per cent removal efficiency rate

    Upon completion, Kusile and Medupi will provide up to 9600Mw – enough power to meet the electricity needs of about seven million households in South Africa.

    GE is a historical player and a pioneer in the power sector in Ivory Coast, and its gas turbines run mainly on GE technology. In 2015, GE committed to support the country’s infrastructure development goals, which included adding 1GW of power to the Ivorian national grid.

    The Azito Power plant produces more than a third of the electricity in the country and marks GE’s Power Services’ first GT13E2 MXL2 gas turbine upgrade in sub-Saharan Africa.

    This upgrade will add an additional 30Mw to the plant’s 450Mw production capacity. In addition, GE is setting up an M&D (Monitoring and Diagnostic) centre in Ivory Coast to provide the digital data and analytics service to improve performance and lower lifecycle costs of all GE equipment in the region.

    Commenting on the 100th power plant installation milestone in SSA, the GE boss said: “This milestone is a testimony of our commitment to providing power solutions to meet the growing energy needs in many countries in the region ahead of other Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).”

    According to him, GE’s regional operations are led by an expert African team. “Our flexible and modular energy solutions respond to the ever-changing needs of the communities where we work and live,” he added.

    The GE CEO attributed the milestone to the company’s ability to partner with independent power producers, EPCs, strategic investors and governments, to deliver these power projects. This, according to him, strengthens the trust and confidence its customers place in it.

    The General Manager, GE Steam Power in sub-Saharan Africa, Lee Dawes, said as a company, GE believes that one of the key drivers of development in Africa is power.

    “Lowering the tariffs, figuring out how we can make the most of the grid, optimising the energy value chain – this is what we think about as a business and work towards improving every day,” he stated.

  • Fed Govt, GE, consortium sign agreement on rail concession

    AN international consortium led by the General Electric (GE) has signed an agreement with the Federal Government to proceed with the interim phase of the narrow-gauge railway concession.

    It  followed the award of preferred bidder status by the Federal Government in May 2017.

    Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi described the event, which held in Washington D.C, United States (U.S.) over the weekend, as a milestone.

    He added that it has gone to signpost the commitment of the present government to drive the modernisation of the nation’s railway system.

    According to Amaechi, “This milestone project is an unprecedented commitment by the Federal Government, which, combined with the GE-led Consortium, would drive the modernisation of the rail infrastructure and add immense value to Nigeria’s long-term economic growth and productivity.”

    He described a modernised railway service as a catalyst for small and medium enterprises and would be a key and incalculable socio-economic benefits for the many Nigerian towns and villages through which the rail network will pass.

    GE Chief Executive Officer in Nigeria Lazarus Angbazo said his organisation is committed to a sustainable rail development for Nigeria.

    “We are delighted to have reached this crucial stage of the project to revamp and revitalise the country’s legacy rail infrastructure system. The consortium looks forward to commencing execution of this Interim Phase with the continued support of the Federal Government and the Ministry of Transportation. As operations begin, our strong partners, such as Transnet and SinoHydro, will bring their strong operating and development skills to the forefront.”

    Other companies on the GE consortium are SinoHydro, a leading infrastructure construction services corporation, Transnet, a leader in transportation and logistics infrastructure management and APM Terminals, a global port, terminal and intermodal inland services provider.

    In the interim phase of the rail concession, remedial works will be carried out on part of the narrow-gauge rail line system to make it technically and economically viable.

    A joint operation will be established between the consortium and the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) with an initial supply of 10 locomotives and 200 wagons to augment the existing rolling stock.

    This programme is expected to increase the number of available locomotives, thus increasing the frequency of passenger and freight rail services.

  • GE, Marinus Energy to build waste gas-to-power plant in Ghana

    GE Power and Marinus Energy has unveiled a pilot project to capture Isopentane gas to generate electricity.

    The Atuabo Waste-to-Power Independent Power Project will be the first in sub-Saharan Africa to use Isopentane gas, which will run on GE’s latest TM2500 gas turbines. The Isopentane gas would have been flared.

    Strategic Advisor of Marinus Energy, Mr. Fred Asamany, said: “Not only is the Atuabo waste-to-power plant enabling our company to lead in innovative energy solutions in Ghana, but by using a fuel source which would otherwise have been flared as waste, we are further reducing emissions and costs. This is good for our business, the climate and eliminates the potential environmental hazards facing the local community. GE is offering an innovative solution which gives us the confidence to move from pilot to commercial operations.”

    In the first phase, Atuabo will convert the Isopentane fuel into to about 25 megawatts (Mw), generating enough electricity to supply power to more than 100,000 Ghanaian households. As additional gas is brought onshore, the plant is expected to add about 100Mw. Additional Isopentane fuel will eventually be stripped off an offshore gas supply and processed at Atuabo by the Ghana National Gas Company. The gas turbine will start on lean gas and transfer to the Isopentane mix over time, and the power plant is intended to operate at base load throughout its life.

    “The TM2500 unit will provide unrivalled speed to deployment and flexibility to support the immediate needs of our customer – Marinus Energy, and then seamlessly transition to deliver capacity over the long term as they expand their operations,” said Leslie Nelson, Chief Executive Officer of GE’s Gas Power Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Atuabo project will add yet another TM2500 gas turbine to the existing fleet of ten units in the country earlier deployed in 2016,” Nelso added.

    With over 200 units deployed and over five million operating hours, GE’s TM2500 has proven flexibility can help bridge the power gap for short-and long-term energy planning, stabilise the grid, or reach and power remote locations.

    The TM2500 mobile power plant – a trailer-mounted gas turbine generator and containerised balance of plant – can be relocated to other power plants, and maintenance outages, or to remote areas.

    It can also achieve full power within 10 minutes, making it ideal for providing a base-load bridge to power installations or generating backup power for factories and industries.

    Last year, GE released several announcements reinforcing its commitments to strengthening the power sector in Ghana. The 400Mw Bridge power project will be the first LPG fired power plant in Africa and the largest LPG fired power plant in the world, while the 200Mw Amandi power plant will be one of the most efficient power plants in the country and will generate the power needed to supply more than one million Ghanaian homes.

    In addition, GE will set up an M&D (Monitoring and Diagnostics) centre in Ivory Coast which will provide the digital data and analytics service to improve the performance of GE equipment in the region.