Prominent Nigerian businessman Dr Deji Adeleke, the father of music superstar Davido, has disclosed that he is currently constructing Nigeria’s largest thermal power plant, which is expected to be launched in January 2025 and costs about $2 billion.
During the Seventh Day Adventist General Conference Annual Council held in Maryland, United States of America, the billionaire industrialist shared details about his involvement in the project as a representative from the West-Central Africa Division.
Adeleke said the project is expected to provide 1,250 kilowatts of electricity to the national grid. His companies provide about 15% of the country’s current power consumption.
“I am a businessman in Nigeria. I’m into the electricity business. I own a power plant; I generate about 15 per cent of Nigeria’s electricity needs. I have Chinese engineering companies that work for me. I’m building the biggest thermal plant in Nigeria, which will be completed in January 2025. It is a 1,250-megawatt power plant.”
Adeleke noted that despite huge setbacks and bureaucratic bottlenecks, he is glad that the project is nearing completion and is scheduled to be inaugurated in the first month of next year.
“We ran into difficult government officials during the design and getting the permit. For environmental reasons, our permit was denied, and the particular government officials I met with told me to my face that my project would never see the light of the day.”
He added that there were security breaches, including looters stealing valuable copper components from turbine machines. This resulted in a one-year delay in the project’s completion and was estimated to have caused a loss of around $5 million.