Nigeria, China partner to produce transformers locally by 2020
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/10/nigeria-china-partner-to-produce.html
Nigeria is to work closely with China for the production of
Nigerian-made transformers by 2020, a top ranking Nigerian official said
on Thursday.
Engr. Mohammed Haruna, the
Executive Vice Chairman, National Agency for Science and Engineering
Infrastructure (NASENI), who made this known in an interview with the
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said that the aim of the
partnership was to put an end to the power supply challenge in the
country.
According to him, the
partnership with the Chinese government will witness the setting up of a
factory in Nigeria for the production of transformers which will begin
in 2020.
He said that on that score, NASENI would look forward to launching made-in-Nigeria transformers soon.
He said that the
partnership would see more than 307.5 million dollars used to implement
three main projects critical to addressing Nigeria’s power needs,
namely: electric power transformer production as well as the
establishment of both a High Voltage Testing Laboratory and the setting
up of Solar cell Production Facility (phase one and phase 2.
According to him, 60
Nigerian engineers and technicians are currently undergoing training in
China to gain knowledge on transformer technology, production,
installation, and maintainance.
“Let me first of all
express gratitude to President Muhammadu Buhari, our Chairman, and his
government for supporting us, and for giving us the go-ahead to explore
means that the country can profit from in its power predicament.
“We are also grateful for
the belief of government that for sustainable power supply in the
country, the nation should be producing some components and pieces of
equipment, as well as some machines needed in the power sector.
“When we started in 2010,
we went to China as a result of the open door and collaborative policy
of the Chinese government, which introduced the Chinese African
Development Fund (CADFund).
“We started applying and
followed the process for the approval under the former government of
President Goodluck Jonathan who signed the agreement.
“It was ratified, signed, and approved for continuation by the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The agreement is to ensure that Nigeria is able to produce world-class power distribution transformers.
“From its design to the material selection and production, to its installation, commission and maintenance.
“As a result of that
collaboration, we currently have 60 qualified engineers and technicians
in China training to specialise in all the aspects of this production at
the China Great Wall Industry Corporation.
“The second component of
this collaboration is high voltage technology because currently in
Nigeria, it is only at the University of Lagos that has high voltage
technology centre for testing equipment in the power sector.
“The final component is, we are manufacturing solar modules in Karshi, but we import certain raw materials.
“The most important raw material – the solar cells – are not produced in Nigeria.
“The Chinese are providing
this support, In fact, 85 per cent (or 261.4 million dollars) of the
funds required for the three projects is being provided by the Chinese
government through the CADFund.
“These are what the
collaboration is all about and it is very good for Nigeria because it
will help us produce substantial components of local content in the
power sector,” Haruna said.
Haruna explained that
Nigeria would contribute the 15 per cent (or 46.1 million dollars)
balance of the total sum of more than 307.5 million dollars earmarked
for the projects.
He added that the Nigerian government had already started contributing its own share of the counterpart funds.
“The project has already
started. The training is according to the work plan because our system
is such that the 60 trainees would be the ones to participate in the
installation of the facilities in Nigeria.
“They started training in
September and the training is for various durations. While some people’s
training would be for six months, some engineers would be trained for
four months and some others for three months
“We do not want the Chinese
to come and do the installation for us; our own engineers would be
trained adequately to come and do the installation for ease of
sustainability and maintenance.
“It is our hope that if
things go as scheduled, depending of course on availability of funds
from our own end, by February, March next year, machines would have
started arriving.
“We would not start producing by February/March because the factory itself will take two to three years to set up,” he said.
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