The Nigerian government has agreed to a deal with the German energy company in an attempt to fix the country's unreliable electricity grid.

Nigeria has signed a six-year power deal with German energy giant Siemens, which will result in the production of at least 25,000 megawatts of electricity by the year 2025.

The deal was first outlined in a meeting between Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in August 2018.

"We all know how critical electricity is to the development of any community or indeed any nation," Buhari told reporters following confirmation of the deal on Monday. "And whilst we are blessed to have significant natural gas, hydro and solar resources for power generation, we are still on the journey to achieving reliable, adorable and quality electricity supply necessary for economic growth, industrialization and poverty alleviation." 
Buhari reportedly asked Siemens to work alongside the Transmission Company of Nigeria to achieve 7,000 megawatts and 11,000 megawatts of reliable power supply by 2021 and 2023 respectively, before the contract lapses.

In an interview with DW, the CEO of Siemens, Joe Kaeser, said his company is determined to see the deal through.

"[President Buhari] made it very clear in his speech that he wants to get this done now, together with reliable engineering partners — European and German engineering style,"  Kaeser said. "And I personally promised to him that we are going to make this work."

'A perfect partner for the Nigerian people'

Nigeria has been experiencing an energy supply crisis for years, with approximately only 40% of the country's population connected to the grid. Even those who have access to electricity frequently experience interruptions, with the average daily power supply estimated at around four hours.

In an attempt to solve the problem, many power reforms implemented since 2005 have focused on privatizing the generator, instead of repairing and upgrading the country's grid.

Kaeser stressed to DW that Siemens will tackle the daunting task based on its expertise in the sector.The company also agreed to a similar roadmap deal with Iraq in April.

"We have generation of all sorts: Conventional power generation, renewable energy, we have transmission, we have distribution," Kaeser said. "We can help with oil and gas and we can even supply digital platforms. So, we have the whole value chain unlike any other company in the world, and that's why I believe we are a perfect partner for the Nigerian people."

So far any discussions about potential costs have been kept under wraps.

"[President Buhari] and I didn't talk about money, we talked about [the] partnership and how we will get it done technically," Kaeser said. "We will soon enter into the first phase of the contract and then we will take it from there."

Read more on the site DW.com