NSIA Denies Being Ordered to Source $200m for Power Debt

Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has denied reports that it has been ordered to source $200 million to settle the Mambila Hydroelectric Power plant’s debt.

NSIA in a statement said it is “not involved in debt settlement on the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power project in any shape of form, neither has any debt on the project been transferred to the NSIA nor is NSIA designed to manage or absorb debt under its mandate”.

The Authority also insisted: “There is no directive from the Presidency or the Federal Government for that matter, instructing the Authority to source US$200million for settlement of a judgment debt award in favour of any foreign firm connected to the Mambilla project.”

Its involvement with the Mambila Hydroelectric Power Plant, the NSIA said, “is to conduct value engineering (VE), which essentially is a best-practice approach for validating the project as VE ensures that notable challenges on the project can be pre-determined and addressed in advance, fosters cost reduction, improves project performance as well as efficiency, and enhances quality requirements”.

Titi Olubiyi , spokesman for the NSIA, said “NSIA’s involvement in Mambilla at this stage is for value engineering and nothing more. The project is one of the four  transferred to the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) for completion/execution. On Mambilla, our instruction/mandate is simply value engineering.”

The other three projects are the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kano Road and Second Niger Bridge.

The Authority said it had known its role in the Mambilla project in its yearly  reports and also online.