Business
Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa looking to invest $2 billion into African power sector
(Reuters) – Nigeria’s United Bank for Africa (UBA) has invested US$700 million this year financing power assets in Africa’s second biggest economy and is looking to put US$2 billion into power projects across the continent over the next three years, CEO Phillips Oduoza told reporters on Tuesday.
Oduoza also said he expected the bank to grow loans by around 14 percent in the next six months, as it had done in the last six months.
Nigeria is reforming its electricity sector in a privatization scheme meant to end the country’s chronic power shortages. President Goodluck Jonathan last week said bidders for state electricity assets had completed payments, clearing a major hurdle in the process.
“We have been financing different parts of the power sector both generation and distribution. We are looking in Nigeria and across Africa with around US$2 billion in the next 3 years,” Oduoza said on the sidelines of an economic conference in the Nigerian capital Abuja.
Of that, he said around US$1.2 billion would be earmarked for Nigeria, a country suffering massive power shortages as demand outstrips supply, forcing those who can afford it to rely on diesel generators.
The state-owned monopoly power firm has been broken up into 11 generation companies and six distribution companies, all being sold separately to private consortia, for a total of around US$2.5 billion.
The United Bank for Africa said in May it expected to grow its loan book by 30 percent this year, up from 6 percent in 2012, as it targets consumer and infrastructure financing.
