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Nigeria Welcomes Foreign Firms to Mine Coal for Power Generation

Posted on: Thursday, 7 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

Nigeria welcomes foreign firms to mine coal for power generation

ABUJA, July 6 (Xinhua) -- The Nigerian government said Wednesday foreign firms are welcome to the country to mine the " vast coal deposits in Nigeria" for power generation to help the West African country find a way out power scarcity.

Aboki Zhawa, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development (MSMD), told reporters in the capital Abuja that some foreign firms from China, South Africa, Poland and Brazil "have indicated their interests in mining our coal."

He said these countries were aware of Nigeria's vast deposits of coal and had shown interest to use the coal to power their industrial plants as well as generate power.

According to Zhawa, there is a global demand for solid minerals and Nigeria is one of the markets for such demands.

"There are hardly any industrial based minerals, metallic or non- metallic that Nigeria does not have," he said.

Nigeria's installed power generating capacity is 6,000 MW. But it can only produce about 2,000 MW of electricity annually due to poor management and technology.

According to the Nigeria's short-term power development program, Nigeria plans to invest in 882 million US dollars in power generation projects during the 2004-07 period with a view to producing 10,000 MW of electricity in 2007.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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