PGCIL executives meet Nigerian Power Minister

ABUJA: Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd executives have met with Nigerian Minister of State for Power Nuhu Wya to buttress their case for assuming management control of Transmission Company of Nigeria after emerging as the lowest bidder for the role in a 2007 auction.

The Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mahesh Sachdev, led a delegation of representatives from PGCIL and India's National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) to the office of the minister in the country's capital, Abuja.

He said the delegation had come to restate its commitment to work for the improvement of the Nigerian transmission system "for faster economic transformation".

"... India and Nigeria could be economic talking points of the globe in the next decade if they work together and appropriately deploy their surplus natural and human gifts," Sachdev said.

Wya was thankful for the visit even as he observed that diplomatic relations between India and Nigeria have improved greatly due to what he called the versatility and commitment of Sachdev since his arrival in Nigeria.

He stressed on the efforts made by the country to improve electricity demand under a new roadmap, which he outlined to the representatives.

PGCIL had said on its website recently that it was the lowest bidder amongst the three parties that submitted offers for management of Nigeria's transmission company.

"We had been short-listed two to three years back, but there had been delays and now we been named the lowest bidder," PGCIL Chairman S K Chaturvedi said.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, who faces two serious challengers in elections scheduled for April, has vowed to tackle the highly erratic power supply situation in the country.