The Plateau Government on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a private company, Shemankar Valley Ltd. for hydropower supply in the state.
Speaking shortly after signing the document, Gov. Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau described the partnership as part of efforts towards addressing shortage of power supply in the state.
Mutfwang, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Samuel Jatau, described power as critical in the development of any society.
“The key ingredient for industrialisation is power, and if we want Plateau state to be an industrialised state, we need power,” the Governor said.
According to him, the project will begin with the Shimankar power project located in Shendam Local Government Area (LGA) for the supply of 21 Mega Watts hydropower.
Mutfwang, who said that the MoU would be fine-tuned, expressed hope that it would lead to more power supply projects in other parts of the state.
He added that the cost and other expertise would be further discussed.
“A team of experts will be set up to meet with their own team for further discussions,” he said.
He said that the company was working in collaboration with a global company to execute the project successfully.
The Governor added that the MoU was the first stage of the project and further discussions would determine the signing of contracts between the two parties.
In his remarks, the Managing Director of the company, retired AVM Pam Chollom said that Plateau had a potential of 300megawatts of hydro power distributed across its local governments.
“We have potentials within Pankshin according to our survey. Currently in Bokkos, Bassa and in fact, every local public has some level of potential for hydropower development within this state,” he said.
He described the 21 megawatts Shimankar project as the smallest among the projects it earmarked for the development, adding that in spite of the amount, it is a huge power.
“This project is so peculiar in such a way that there will be no displacement of people within the project site.
“There will be no flooding of farmlands because the technology utilised here is such that all the water that will be required for the project will be stored within the riverbed.
“Now another peculiarity of this project is that it will involve 2.4 kilometers pressure tunnel,” Managing Director said.
He described Plateau as the sole beneficiary of the project because the power would remain within state and not will to the national grid.
He described company’s global partner as experts in the sector that handled Zungeru 700 Mega Watts hydropower project in Niger.
He said two sites for the project in Bokkos had potential of hydro power supply of 29 and 49 Megawatts while Bassa Local Government Area had a potential of 60 Mega watts.