The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure NASENI, has partnered with China Great Wall Industry Corporation CGWIC, for the establishment of a transformer production plant in Nigeria.

The Deputy Director, Information, NASENI, Mr Olusegun Ayeoyenikan, said the two bodies would carry out the groundbreaking and foundation laying ceremony of the project in September 2022.

This was revealed on Thursday in Abuja during the visit of the Chinese team to the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive of NASENI, Prof. Mohammed Sani Haruna at the NASENI’s corporate headquarters.

He said “the agreement was first signed in 2013 between the Federal Government and People’s Republic of China, but due to some technicalities, the project could not take off.  Noting that the President Muhammadu Buhari had given a fresh directive concerning the three projects which, according to him, must take off in September.

Ayeoyenikan said, “more than 50 per cent of the 15 per cent counterpart fund to be paid by the Federal Government on the establishment of transformer plant in Nigeria had been fulfilled, and the ground-breaking and foundation laying ceremony of the project would be done by the President in September, 2022.

“This particular round of visit by the Chinese technical partner to Nigeria was to ensure that all the finishing touches on the commencement of construction work about the projects are done with for effective take off in September.

“For any nation to offer permanent solutions to the issue of power supply, it must have its own high voltage testing laboratory, which is what this project is expected to achieve for Nigeria. NASENI had already trained about 60 engineers since 2019 in these areas to ensure that when the plant effectively takes off, it will be the best and will be run by trained Nigerian engineers and scientists.

“We are in this for the purpose of ensuring that Nigeria becomes one of the countries in the world with steady power supply which is an essential foundation for a genuine industrialisation dream by the country,” he said.