A South Korean firm, Kingline Integrated Power Development Limited has<\/p>\n
expressed its readiness to build a 550 Megawatts gas fired power plant in
\nCross River State.<\/p>\n
Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Sean Kim dropped the hint when
\nhe led a delegation from the firm on courtesy visit to the governor,
\nSenator Ben Ayade in Government House, Calabar, yesterday.<\/p>\n
His words: “We have already done some preliminary checks in Cross River
\nState and the proposed sites meet all of the requirements which is why we
\nare here today. The next phase will be the application for a generation
\nlicence, initiating processes for the Environmental Impact Assessment
\n(EIA) and preparations for the project among other necessary bureaucratic
\nprocesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Offering insights into the financing of the project, bearing in mind the
\ncurrent economic realities in the country, Kim said:\u00a0 \u201cOn financing, about
\n560 million USD will be coming in from the company and other investors
\nwhich includes the World Bank,\u201d pointing out that the monies will “be
\nsufficient to get this power plant underway”.<\/p>\n
He further disclosed: “We intend to invest around 10 million dollars
\nduring the developing phase and then once we get to the financing closure,
\ntogether with our investors, we plan to bring in about USD150 million in
\nterms of equity. At the same time, we will put together a debt package of
\naround USD400 million composed of export credit, agency support from Korea
\nas well as the World Bank and others.”<\/p>\n
Kim who appealed for land and security from the state government,
\ndescribed the partnership as one that will be a “win-win and beneficial”
\nas the state will have the opportunity as a shareholder, the value
\ncreation on the share, the dividend and tax revenues as well as creation
\nof over 1,000 jobs. He said the local content act will be effective in the
\nhiring of labour for the building of the plant.<\/p>\n
Responding, Cross River State governor, Professor Ben Ayade lauded the
\nfirm for bringing the projects to the state. He added that the idea of gas
\nfired turbines was apt because the state’s capital city, Calabar, was
\ndesigned to be “The epicenter of gas gathering around the southern flank
\nin the national gas master plan.”<\/p>\n
“You are doing the right thing, you are coming at the right time as this
\nis the time that you also have the right incentives. The gas to power
\ntariff is completely restructured in such a way that it will support you
\nto buy gas to generate power. And so, I believe that with that scenario,
\nthe gas fired turbine will be a good way to go,” Ayade reasoned.<\/p>\n
The Governor further explained that the choice of Cross River to invest,
\nwas not only good but that it also ticked all the boxes needed for
\nbusiness to thrive in the Niger Delta corridor, considering environmental
\npeace, social peace, topography and others variables.\u201d<\/p>\n
While assuring the firm of massive returns on their investment, Ayade
\nsaid: \u201cYou don’t have to carry a policeman, you don’t need to carry law
\nenforcement to force Cross Riverians to pay utility bills because we are
\neducated, we are very civilized, we are very cultured because we had the
\nearliest contact with civilization as a state,” stressing why Cross River
\nremained a leading investment destination in Nigeria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A South Korean firm, Kingline Integrated Power Development Limited has expressed its readiness to build a 550 Megawatts gas fired power plant in Cross River State. Chief Executive Officer of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n