Nigeria now wants China to support the construction of Mambilla Hydropower project situated in Taraba state.
President Muhammadu Buhari asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the recent forum on china-Africa cooperation (focac) in Beijing to help boost the $6 billion project that he likened to the Three Gorges Dam in China.
The Mambilla project is Nigeria’s biggest hydropower plant, which would be connected to three dams across Taraba’s Donga River.
“I told President Xi that the Mambilla Hydropower Plant is Nigeria’s equivalent of China’s Three Gorges Dam, and that I look forward to him joining me for the groundbreaking ceremony in the not-too-distant future.
I am fully committed to the realization of this landmark project,” president Buhari tweeted.
Mr Buhari said that Mambilla Hydropower Project remains a key priority for the government and that he hoped to fund the project with concessionary loans from China.
Nigeria hopes that the Mambilla hydropower Plant which has been in the making for over 40 years will open a huge window of opportunity for Nigeria to harness its hydro potentials for electricity and irrigation purposes.
The first preliminary feasibility study for the Mambilla hydropower Plant was reportedly carried out by Moto Columbus in 1972.
Since then there has been attempts to actualize the project but in vain.