Blackstone and Dangote Industries, Wednesday in Kano
announced a commitment by Black Rhino, a portfolio company of Blackstone Energy
Partners to jointly invest up to $10 billion in energy infrastructure projects
in the state and across East-South Nigeria, with a particular emphasis on
renewable energy, transmission and pipeline projects.
The chairman of Black Rhino Group and Emir of Kano,
Malam Muhammadu Sanusi II, explained that his group and Dangote Industries
would contribute $5 billion each for the construction of a coal power plant and
a solar energy project in Kano, as well as gas pipeline project from Akwa Ibon
to South west Nigeria, where Dangote Industries are concentrated.
Speaking during a courtesy visit to the state
governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the Emir explained that the consortium
decided embarked on the power projects in Kano because of the power crisis in
the state, explaining that the coal project and the solar energy project would
produce about 1,000 MW and 100 MW respectively.
Malam Sanusi expressed optimism that the projects
would to a large extent improve electricity power generation in the state for
both the consumption of Kano residents and for the revival of the ailing
industries in the state.
In his remarks on the occasion, Chairman of Dangote
Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who expressed optimism on the viability of the
projects, assured that it would improve power generation in the state and
resuscitate industries so that they can generate employment opportunities for
the teeming youth and make the economy vibrant.
He explained that the gas project from the South
East to Western Nigeria would extend to Ghana and would go a long way in
addressing the energy needs of industries within the region, particularly those
under the Dangote group.
On his part, the state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar
Ganduje expressed the hope that “the project would bail Kano State out of its
prevailing economic depression and uplift the state to another level of
economic prosperity and development”.
“Now that the national economy is dwindling, we have
no better way to revive it than to invest in agriculture and resuscitate our
industries”, the governor stated, promising that the state government would
provide land, among other things, to enable the project to materialize.
Stressing that power was very critical to the
survival of industries in the State, Dr. Ganduje announced that the state
government was also making modest effort to provide electricity through the
ongoing multi-billion Naira Independent Power projects at Tiga and Challawa,
which would generate 35MW of electricity.
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