UBA to invest $2b in Africa’s power projects

The United Bank for Africa (UBA) has invested
$700 million this year financing power assets
in Nigeria and is looking to put $2 billion into
power projects across the continent over the
next three years, the bank’s chief executive
officer, Phillips Oduoza, told Reuters.
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
privatisation 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 $2 billion in the next three years,”
Oduoza said on the sidelines of an economic
conference in Abuja.
Of that, he said around $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 Power Holding Company of
Nigeria has been broken up into 11 generation
companies and six distribution companies, all
being sold separately to private consortia, for
a total of around $2.5 billion.
UBA said in May it expected to grow its loan
book by 30 percent this year, up from six
percent in 2012, as it targets consumer and
infrastructure financing.
“The top line loan growth by first half was
about 14 percent … for the next half we are
expecting about the same thing,” Oduoza told
Reuters.