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Japan gave Nigeria on Tuesday US $11 million to bring electricity to two villages in the northern state of Nassarawa, AFP reported.
The deal was signed in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The economic advisor to President Olusegun Obasanjo, Philip Asidou, said the government would provide matching funds to connect rural areas to the national electricity grid. Another three towns hope to benefit from similar aid between 2001 and 2003, AFP said.
It added that at least 60 percent of Nigeria’s estimated 120 million people lived in homes not connected to the system, which is notoriously unreliable and urgently needs upgrading. AFP said the government had so far connected the administrative centres of 549 of Nigeria’s 774 local governments to the grid.
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