Success Nwogu 
Lagos State, Nigeria’s biggest city and commercial hub, targets to raise $10 billion in private investment to boost electricity supply to nearly five million households by 2032; the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has said.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, he also said the state government had made an extensive power road map in the state.
He said, “We’ve done an extensive power roadmap in energy for Lagos and we have an idea of what our requirements will be for the next 10 years.
“We’re trying to grow our power requirement and based on the energy needs, it will be about 10,000 to 12,000 megawatts of power. So it could be an investment opportunity of up to like $10 billion. So, we’re going to put that in front of investors.”
Lago has about 25 million residents and receives about 25% of 5,000 megawatts of national grid-connected electricity. This has prompted, Lagos, which is one of the top ten world’s fastest-growing cities and urban areas to depedepend ongmented off-grid power sources, according to Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
Sanwo-Olu also said his government is collaborating with the World Bank and USAID to create off-grid options to encourage the usage of renewable energy in Lagos.
He stated that the state which is Africa’s most populated city intends to create more than 1GW of solar photovoltaic energy in seven years, which will enable it to electrify 1.6 million homes by 2030.
The governor said that to achieve such a lofty dream, the state government had earlier signed a $6 million solar deployment deal with the Norway government at the opening of the Lagos-Norway Energy Exchange in Lagos.
Sanwo-Olu said the Lagos mass transit rail line, which was designed to alleviate the city’s notorious traffic snarl, is expected to begin operations by the end of August, following an eight-month delay.
The governor said the construction of an independent power plant has been delayed by several months due to a “global disruption” in the delivery of crucial components.
The railway, built by China Civil Engineering Construction Corp., is scheduled to run on electric rails. It will run from Apapa near the Tin Can Island seaport to Marina on Lagos Island.
Sanwo-Olu said, “They’re almost in the country now,.“W. even need it now more than ever before because of subsidy issues and so we’re working round the clock.”
The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority has said that the first phase of the proposed 27-k27-kilometer.8 mile) the network will initially handle 250,000 passengers each day.
