The federal government has inaugurated a 40 megawatts Dadin Kowa Hydropower Project in Gombe State. The Plant has the capacity for electricity generation, irrigation of over 30 thousand hectares and has the capacity to process over 50 million litres of water per day.
It will also be used for fisheries, irrigation control and the protection of biodiversity downstream and upstream.
This will be accomplished through the capacity of the dam, which stands at 2.8 billion cubic metres reservoir capacity, a storage capacity of 1.77 billion cubic metres and depth storage of 1.1 billion cubic metres.
MABON GROUP, a conglomerate had secured and was awarded 25 year build -operate-transfer concession in respect to the Dadin Kowa Hydropower plant project in Nigeria. Mabon completed the hydropower plant and has since been operational and contributing power to the national grid.
Richard Madububyi, the Managing Director of MABON Limited in his remark at the commissioning of the project in Gombe state on Friday, May 19, thanked the Federal government and the government of Gombe state for their efforts towards making the project a reality; he assured different stakeholders of effective and efficient management of the facility.
The MD noted that the project would produce 40 megawatts of electricity for the people and companies that reside in the region, he said “The completion of Dadin Kowa hydropower is a testament to the power of collaboration, it took a great of efforts and resources from different stakeholders to ensure the success of this project”.
He also revealed that the MABON limited is currently working to increase their irrigation water supply from 3000 hectares to 5000 hectares and also to improve contribution to the national grid by provision of black stent operation where necessary.
The Governor of Gombe state, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya in his remark said the completion and commissioning of the power project represents a milestone in the energy independence of the North East, noting that the Dadin Kowa and the Kashimbila power project were the only grid generating plant in the North East, making them very important to the voltage stability in the region.
The Minister of water resources, Suleiman Hassan Adamu said the benefit of the Hydropower project cannot be over emphasied; ranging from promotion of medium and small scale industries to industrialization to creation of employment opportunities amongst others.
“The power is an integral component of Dadin Kowa Multipurpose Dam which was built in 1988 with the reservoir capacity of 2.8 billion cubic litres to provide with the goal of providing 6000 hectares of irrigation, 40MW of electricity and 30,000 cubic meters daily water supply to Gombe and environs,” the Minister said.
Concluding, the minister appreciated MABON limited, the concessionaire company that undertook the project for making final completion of the project a reality.
Source: BUSINESSDAY
