Isaac Anumihe, Abuja

Power generation companies in Nigeria have accused  Siemens AG of Germany which recently signed a power development contract with the Federal Government of intellectual  property theft in respect of the power document it presented to the Federal Government. 

Speaking to Daily Sun, yesterday, the Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), Dr Joy Ogaji, challenged the German firm to defend the document it  presented to win the contract.

“I am challenging Siemens that the document they are using is 85  per cent of  Nigerian content. There is no  100  per cent  intellectual content by Siemens.

I have looked at the Siemens document.  First, I don’t know if it is the only document government signed with Siemens. Even the one  I saw was  by chance because it is not in the public domain.  So, if you ask me to analyse the import of the contract Siemens signed with Nigeria, how do  we review and analyse or critique it when we  don’t have the full details of what was signed? That is one question. Then the second question is, in terms of implementation, I looked at the one I was able to see, it is called the ‘Nigeria electrification roadmap’. That is the one I managed to see. It is not in the public domain. I was able to access it anyhow” she insisted.

The Federal Government last week in Abuja, signed the  Electricity Road Map agreement with Germany-based company, Siemens AG. In the agreement, President Muhammadu Buhari, had asked Siemens  to work hard to achieve 7,000 megawatts of reliable power by 2021, and 11,000 megawatts by 2023.

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“We all know how critical electricity is to the development of any community or indeed any nation

“And in Nigeria, we are blessed to have significant natural gas, hydro and solar resources for power generation.

“We are still on the journey to achieving reliable, affordable and quality electricity supply necessary for economic growth, industrialisation and poverty alleviation.

“My challenge to Siemens, our partner investors in the Distribution Companies, the Transmission Company of Nigeria and the Electricity Regulator is to work hard to achieve 7,000 megawatts of reliable power supply by 2021 and 11,000 megawatts by 2023 in phases 1 and 2 respectively.

“After these transmission and distribution system bottlenecks have been fixed, we will seek in the third and final phase to drive generation capacity and overall grid capacity to 25,000 megawatts,’’ the president said.