1. Home
  2. West Africa
  3. Niger
  • News

Light from Nigeria for towns in Niger

Work on a project to provide towns in Niger with electricity from neighbouring Nigeria has just been launched by the ministry responsible for energy in Niger, according to information from the ministry. The project includes extending an electricity network that connects the southern town of Maradi to Nigeria so that it covers the region of Tahoua, in east central Niger. Chetimari in Diffa Region, eastern Niger, is to be connected to Damassak in northern Nigeria by another network to be created under the scheme, known as the Projet de Développement du réseau électrique interconnecté du Niger (DREIN - Project for the Development of Niger's Interconnected Electric Network). The cost of the project is 9.5 billion CFA francs (about US $15.5 million). To link Tahoua to the Nigeria-Maradi grid, two networks extending over a total of 444 km will be established, bringing electricity to the region's main towns and about a dozen other localities. A 254-km network will link more than a score of localities in Diffa Region, including the towns of Maine Soroa, N'Guigmi and Diffa, to Damassak in Nigeria. The project will enable Niger's electricity company, Nigelec, to shut down eight diesel plants whose production costs amounted to 170 CFA francs per kilowatt/hour (kwh), seven times higher that the price of energy imported from Nigeria: 24 CFA francs per kwh. (US $1 = 611 CFA francs). In addition to cutting costs, the project will allow the company to increase its income since more localities will be connected to the electricity grid, ministerial sources said. Niger generally depends on Nigeria for most of its electricity: in 1999 imported electricity from Nigeria represented 84.71 percent of the energy consumed in the neighbouring country. Some six percent of Niger's roughly 10 million people have access to electricity, although in areas connected to the national electricity grid, the access rate averages 25 percent. Nigelec (Société nigérienne d’électricité) is one of 13 state companies which the government plans to privatise under an agreement with international financial institutions.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

Share this article

Get the day’s top headlines in your inbox every morning

Starting at just $5 a month, you can become a member of The New Humanitarian and receive our premium newsletter, DAWNS Digest.

DAWNS Digest has been the trusted essential morning read for global aid and foreign policy professionals for more than 10 years.

Government, media, global governance organisations, NGOs, academics, and more subscribe to DAWNS to receive the day’s top global headlines of news and analysis in their inboxes every weekday morning.

It’s the perfect way to start your day.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian today and you’ll automatically be subscribed to DAWNS Digest – free of charge.

Become a member of The New Humanitarian

Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

Join