The federal government has stated that it wouldn’t concession any dam, but its hydro power component of the dam.
The Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu, revealed this on Tuesday during the opening ceremony of a-day workshop for media practitioners in the water and sanitation sector, saying the ministry has started the process of concessioning the hydro powers by appointing a transaction adviser.
Adamu said though the hydro power component of the dam is completed, the ministry is still waiting for the transmission line to be completed, which according to him is not within the purview of the ministry.
He said, “We are not concessioning any dam, when we concession, we can concession the hydro power component of the dam, but the dam will still be owned by the Federal Government. All we will do is to provides some leasing arrangements for fish farming and those are the kind of things we can do. We concession hydro power and aquaculture.
“In Gurara, we have hydro power plant there. All the processes for concessioning has been completed, is now the matter of presenting to the Federal Executive Council for approval.
‘Of course we still have to wait because the transmission lines is not ready and that is not within the purview of the ministry, it is undertaken by the TCN but a lot of provisions has been made and we hope that by the end of this year, something better will happen.
“We have 40 mega watts Kashmbilla Hydro Power Plant which is also ready. Again, we are also waiting for transmission line to be completed but have started the process of concessioning and we have appointed a transaction adviser, hopefully by next year, we should be able concession that one as well,” he said.
