GENERAL Electric Co, the world's third-biggest company, may help build power plants in Nigeria to end chronic shortages of electricity in the west African nation.
The Fairfield, Connecticut-based company is in discussions with officials on several projects, Ferdinando Beccalli-Falco, Chief Executive Officer of GE International, said on Monday from Abuja, the Nigerian capital. GE hasn't entered into any agreements yet, he said, without providing more information.
"We're offering our balance sheet," Beccalli-Falco said when asked if GE was prepared to build a power plant with its own money under a public-private-partnership policy that the Nigerian government wants to initiate.
Boosting power and ending decades of blackouts is a priority in Nigeria, Africa's most-populous country, which generates less than 3,500 megawatts. President Umaru Yar'Adua plans to increase output to about 6,000 megawatts by the end of next year. He has blamed his predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, for failing to provide power even after spending "billions" of dollars on projects during his eight-year rule.