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Olusegun Obasanjo, former president of Nigeria, has observed that Africa has all it takes to develop, if governments’ create a conducive environment and right incentives to sustain investments.
Obasanjo stated this Monday in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia state, during a reception organised in his honour after the commissioning of Geometric Power Limited 30 MVA Ogbor Hill sub-station located in Ohuru, in Obingwa Local Government Area of the state.
Former President Obasanjo, who was excited to hear that 70% of the $800 million cost of the project was sourced locally, while 30% came from foreign lenders, stressed that Nigeria and the African countries have what it takes to develop.
In his words, “the lesson to learn from the success story of Geometric Power is that within ourselves, among ourselves and by ourselves, we have what it takes to develop.
“The point am trying to make is that the money to develop Africa is available, whether internally or from outside, but that money should be given a good condition to be able to come in and be used judiciously, which is our problem”.
Recall that Former President Obasanjo, in 2004, gave the node to Bart Nnaji, a professor and chairman of Geometric Group and his team to construct a power generating plant in Aba, after the visit of Jim Wolfondohn, the then president of the World Bank and Ngozi Oknojo Iweala, the then Nigeria’s minister of finance, to Aba.
Obasanjo, who acknowledged the importance of power in industrial development, said that he wasn’t sure of the outcome of the encouragement he gave to Geometric in 2004, but expressed joy that Bart Nnaji and his team did not let him down.
“When I tried to give that encouragement, I wasn’t sure what the outcome would be, it was a trial and then now that I have seen the outcome, I feel happy that inspite of all the odds that were against the progress of this project, you persisted, you insisted, you did not give up and you became stubbornly attached to the project and you achieved it”.
He noted that with steady power supply that Aba will regain its prime position as the industrial hub of not only Nigeria, but the entire West Africa.
Bart Nnaji, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Geometric Power Group said that only a leader with Obasanjo’s foresight and patriotism, would permit the creation of the Aba Ring-fenced Area for the pilot project, as part of his plan for the power sector reform programme, which he initiated, as a way to revitalize and sustain Nigeria’s economy.
He explained that the Aba ring-fence consists of 9 out of the seventeen 17 LGAs in Abia state, the first area to simultaneously have permission to develop an independent source of power generation and distribution during the period of NEPA’s monopoly of the power sector, and a time when the law did not permit even state governments to get involved in power generation, transmission or distribution.
He thanked Obasanjo for granting Geometric Power the pioneer concession to build the Aba Ring-fenced Area before the emergence of the Power Sector Reform Act of 2005, which placed electricity generation, transmission, and distribution on the concurrent list.
“Obasanjo also supported us in other critical ways. He made it possible through decisive intervention for Geometric Power to sign a commercial gas agreement with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and their joint venture (JV) partners, consisting of SPDC, NNPC, AGIP and TOTAL to provide gas to the 188MW Geometric Power Plant from the gas processing station at Owaza, in Ukwa West Local Government Area of Abia State.
“This was the first time any independent power producer negotiated and signed such a commercial gas supply agreement with the IOCs in Nigeria. This negotiation process took close to 4 years to complete.
“Frankly, without President Obasanjo’s approval for the supply of gas to the power plant, we would not have been able to negotiate with any IOC for gas supply in the first place.
“In 2021, President Obasanjo’s intervention also made it possible for us to conclude negotiations with the Afreximbank on the credit facility that led to the revival of the Aba Independent Power Project after almost nine 9 years of delay, due to “man-made error”, as the former President, Goodluck Jonathan, put it after he visited this site in March 2015.
To ensure a logical conclusion of the agreement, Nnaji said that Obasanjo even discussed the project during a virtual meeting he had with Okey Oramah, president of Afreximbank and his team.
The 188mw Geometric Power Plant situated in Osisioma Industrial estate, which was commissioned in February 2024, was conceived in 2004 before the power sector reforms were fully implemented.
Work started about 4 years later. The first phase of the project was completed around 2013.
However, the project faced several challenges, including regulatory, political, and legal issues, which were not resolved until 2022, under the Buhari administration.
During that year, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) facilitated the handover of the Aba Electricity Ringfenced area from EEDC/Interstate Electrics/FGN to Geometric Power Limited.
