Report by Bayo Adewusi
The Nigerian electricity sector was abuzz last week when Geometric Power, Nigeria’s foremost electricity integrated company, flagged off the 42-kilometre New Ukwa 33KV Line. Nigerians were fascinated to learn that the project’s cost is a mere N1.8bn, in contrast to similar projects that cost four times elsewhere.
Also of interest to Nigerians is that the project will be completed within just 90 days. What is unknown to most Nigerians is that this is a vendor-financed project, which the Geometric Power Chief Finance Officer, Anthony Ike Alozie, a former executive with Harliburton of the United States, describes as a mark of “growing investor confidence in Geometric Power despite the crisis of values in the country”.
Divine Point Investment Ltd, respected in the electric power but little known in the larger society, is financing the N1.8bn project and will recoup its investment in time. “We believe in the Geometric Power vision of developing all parts of Nigeria with resources available in every area”, Augustine Osita Onyejekwe, the Divine Points Ltd chairman, explained to newsmen in Aba a week after the flagoff.
“Geometric Power is using the immense natural gas in Owaza, Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State, to provide electricity to communities, households, religious bodies, industries, organizations like hospitals, laboratories, universities, and other educational institutions to drive rapid socioeconomic progress in nine of the 17 LGAs in the state it services”.
Aba is synonymous with Nigeria’s indigenous manufacturing, but has over the decades suffered de-industrialization as big multinationals like Guinness Breweries ceased to produce there principally because of power shortages.
This severe crisis caused the then World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, and Nigeria’s Minister of Finance then, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to request the Geometric Power chairman, Professor Bart Nnaji, to build a gas-fired power plant in the Aba area to supply power to the manufacturers. This was after they visited Aba on March 6, 2004, to assess the tremendous industrialization potential of the place.
Onyejekwe says that Aba is critical to the national economy, and not just a part of the Nigerian economy. He remarks: “When multinationals like PZ and Nigerian Breweries manufacture in Aba, which is also known as Enyimba City, the products are consumed all over Nigeria. Employees, suppliers, consultants, and distributors of these firms are from all over the country”.
The University of Lagos management graduate describes Geometric Power’s decision to build the New Ukwa 33KV Line as wise, noting that big organizations like Oilserv, Nigeria’s biggest oil and gas pipeline construction and servicing firm, the Nigerian-British University, and the Blue World Pharmacy that will soon start to manufacture medicines to World Health Organization (WHO) standards are located on the Port Harcourt Expressway which passes through Ukwa.
As Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital and Nigeria’s oil and gas headquarters, is already congested, firms are relocated to neighbouring Abia State, a development now accelerated by the provision of quality infrastructure like constant and quality electricity as well as standard roads in Abia in recent years. “It is farsighted of Geometric Power”, according to the Divine Point Investment chairman, “to build the new line dedicated to businesses in the industrial area so that they will stop sharing electricity with the host community, with all the challenges”.
Onyejekwe continues: “Which socially responsible company wouldn’t be happy at the new development? We are delighted that after a thorough analysis of our capabilities and accomplishments, Geometric Power chose our firm over and above its peers to partner with it as the vendor financier.
The Divine Point Investment CEO is proud that his firm is Nigeria’s first indigenous company to design and construct 3 by 33KV feeders in one location. “We not only built the three feeders spanning 15KMs in the Redemption Camp in Ogun State developed by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, but also designed them. Geometric Power must have been impressed by this achievement while assessing our capabilities.
“Besides, we had earlier constructed powerlines and provided distribution transformers in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, and Ilorin, Kwara State, which are part of the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) coverage area. We have also carried out similar projects in Orsu and Mbano LGAs in Imo State serviced by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).
That’s why we met Geometric Power’s rigorous standards and tests”. Onyejekwe, who was influenced by his father, the late Romanus Onyejekwe, a former employee with the defunct Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN), into electricity business, is confident that Divine Point Investment Ltd will deliver the 42-KM New Ukwa 33KV Line for businesses in 90 days at N1.8bn. “We won’t ask for contract variation, as with many Nigerian government projects. We will deliver on time and within budget”, he says. “Mark my word”.