1,000mw solar power farm to take off in Kogi

WORK is set to commence on a 1000 megawatts solar power farm in Kogi State.

  Already, the implementers of the project have sealed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kogi State government on 2,700 hectares of land to site the solar farm.

  The private sector partners have assured that work would commence on the project within three months once the necessary government approvals have been given.

  To hasten the implementation of the scheme, the Federal Government yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Firstgate Business Intermediaries Limited and its South Korean technical partners to construct the 1,000megawatts (mw) solar farm.

  Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, assured, at the signing of the agreement in Abuja, that government would work towards assisting the investors in facilitating the project, especially on acquiring the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), EIA and other documents.

  He commended Firstgate Business Intermediaries Limited and its South Korean partners on the feat, urging them to work on delivering the projects within the time frame stipulated in the pact.

  He also urged the firm to tap into the huge power technology abounding in South Korea to deliver quality power plant in Nigeria. He said South Korea has abundant solar energy farms, stressing that such could be replicated in Nigeria to power cluster industries with advanced battery storage systems. Nebo highlighted how such plants require huge financing.

   Chairman of the company, Kelvin Iyke Asogwa, said it has buoyant financiers following collaboration with local banks for the projects. He disclosed that the company has technical partners from Turkey who are reputed for their excellence in power projects, just as he said the firm has agreements with foreign partners to train about 74,000 youths in their operating plants overseas, who will then constitute the workforce for the local companies being constructed.

  His words: “We have planned to work with 74,000 youths. The various MoU we have with these companies say the foreign partners will take our youths and while they are on training, they will be building these companies here and the youths will graduate when the factories are ready to absorb them. They are coming back to resume work in these factories, so the cycle is completed.”