At just over ₦30 billion, this is the largest of the four REA contracts delivered by the company, and the only one exceeding the ₦20 billion threshold.
Why Cross River
Cross River sits in Nigeria’s South South, running from the coastal plain at Calabar north through dense rainforest to the Obudu highlands. It is one of the country’s least densely settled southern states, with populations distributed across many small communities rather than concentrated in a few urban centres.
That geography is what makes grid expansion here expensive per connection and slow per kilometre. Route length is high relative to load; access roads are limited; and the rainy season across much of the state restricts pole-setting and stringing for months at a time. A 400-kilometre medium-voltage build in this terrain is a materially different undertaking from the same length across open savannah.
Scope Delivered
The project comprised the full design and construction of a distribution network, executed as a single integrated scope:
| Component | Quantity |
|---|---|
| Medium voltage (33 kV) ACSR lines | 400 km |
| MV poles, with accessories | 4,200 |
| IACM | 180 |
| MV substations (10,275 kVA combined capacity) | 110 |
| Low voltage (0.415 kV) AAC lines | 250 km |
| LV poles, with accessories | 6,250 |
| Overhead twisted aluminium cable (2×16 mm²) | 556,830 lm |
| Overhead twisted aluminium cable (4×16 mm²) | 122,140 lm |
| Single-phase meters | 18,500 |
| Three-phase meters | 3,400 |
The 33 kV medium-voltage selection is notable. Where the Maiduguri contract was built at 11 kV, Cross River was designed at 33 kV — the appropriate choice for carrying power over long distances to dispersed load centres, and consistent with a grid-expansion rather than a network-densification brief.
Execution Record
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Proposal submitted | 18 January 2021 |
| Notification of award | 16 April 2021 |
| Works commenced | 11 May 2021 |
| Works completed | 1 May 2023 |
| Certificate of Completion issued | 5 June 2023 |
Total duration from commencement to completion: approximately 24 months. The Agency’s completion certificate records that all activities were completed within the scheduled timeframe, in accordance with industry standards and project specifications, and that the system has operated without significant technical issues since commissioning.
What This Demonstrates
Contract scale. At ₦30.2 billion, this is a large single award by the standards of Nigerian distribution work, and it was executed under one contract rather than split into packages.
Long-duration programme management. Twenty-four months of continuous field execution across a dispersed rural footprint requires sustained supply chain, camp and workforce management rather than a single mobilisation.
Concurrent delivery. Execution overlapped with two other REA contracts — Anambra and Borno — running simultaneously in the South East and North East. At peak, the company was delivering three distribution programmes in three widely separated regions of Nigeria.
Rural connection delivery. 21,900 metered connections were installed, extending supply to communities previously off-grid or intermittently served.
The Economic Footprint of Execution
The macroeconomic case for this class of work is well documented. The World Bank has estimated Nigeria’s annual economic losses from unreliable power at 5 to 7 per cent of GDP — in the order of US$25 billion a year. The same analysis records aggregate technical, commercial and collection losses across Nigerian distribution companies at approximately 50 per cent, against an international good-practice benchmark of about 15 per cent. Distribution is where most of the value in Nigerian power is currently lost, and therefore where investment in network and metering has the clearest return.
What a ₦30.2 billion, 24-month execution puts into a state economy. A programme of this length is not a procurement event but a sustained local operation. Over two years in Cross River, the work required accommodation and camps, fuel and haulage, aggregates and civil materials, security services, plant hire, and a continuous field workforce distributed across multiple work fronts. A substantial share of a contract of this type is spent inside the host economy rather than repatriated, and the spend is recurrent rather than one-off.
Skills created are transferable and durable. Linesmen, jointers, substation fitters and metering technicians trained on a 400-kilometre 33 kV programme hold skills that remain economically useful in the state long after demobilisation — particularly relevant in a sector where Nigeria’s constraint is as much installation and maintenance capacity as it is capital.
Connection as economic infrastructure. The 21,900 metered connections delivered are not only household amenities. In dispersed rural economies, grid supply is what makes milling, refrigeration, cold storage for fish and produce, welding, tailoring and borehole pumping viable as businesses rather than as intermittent generator-dependent activities. The productive-use effect is generally where the measurable income gains from rural electrification appear.
What the contract did for the company. At ₦30.2 billion this was the largest of the four REA awards and, in dollar terms at the time of award, the largest single Nigerian contract in the set. Delivering it established the company as an executor of utility-scale distribution work in one of the world’s largest underserved electricity markets, and produced the reference that supported the subsequent Kogi award. For an investor, the relevant point is that the Nigerian position was built through delivered work rather than through acquisition or partnership.
Part of a Four-Project Programme
This project is one of four distribution contracts executed by International Consolidated Contractors Offshore SAL for the Rural Electrification Agency between 2020 and 2024:
| State | Contract Reference | Value (₦) | Executed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anambra | REA/C/GO/RFP/138/20 | 14,982,189,523.00 | Jan 2021 – Jul 2023 |
| Cross River (Calabar) | REA/C/GO/RFP/026/21 | 30,222,025,633.60 | May 2021 – May 2023 |
| Borno (Maiduguri) | REA/C/GO/RFP/094/21 | 12,473,941,662.50 | Jun 2021 – Jun 2022 |
| Kogi (Okene) | REA/C/GO/RFP/147/22 | 15,284,911,599.78 | Dec 2022 – May 2024 |
| Total | 72,963,068,418.88 |
Across the four contracts: 2,578 km of distribution line, 325 substations totalling 33.3 MVA, 42,089 poles and 93,732 metered connections.
Notes on Figures
All contract values are stated in Nigerian naira as contracted. US dollar equivalents reflect the rate prevailing at the date of each award; the naira has depreciated substantially across the period covered, so values from different years are not directly comparable and should not be summed in dollars without restating to a common date.
Supporting documentation — the Notification of Award dated 16 April 2021 and the Certificate of Completion dated 5 June 2023, both issued by the Rural Electrification Agency under contract reference REA/C/GO/RFP/026/21 — is available on request.
Business Development · Power & Infrastructure Division
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