Siemens Limited has said it has no stake in any of the firms bidding for Power Holding Company of Nigeria’s successor companies.
The firm said it was only offering technical services to one of the bidding companies.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Limited, Mr. Michael Lakota, said this recently while responding to questions from journalists in Lagos.
He said, “We have no stake in any other company in Nigeria, whether in shares, capital or whatever.”
The firm, however, said it was fully committed to operate in Nigeria and contribute its quota to the development of the economy.
Lakota, who recently assumed the position of managing director in the company, described Nigeria as a dynamic market, and promised to work towards boosting the country’s image at Siemens AG (its parent company).
He said the firm was currently operating in four major sectors comprising: Energy, Industry, Health and Infrastructure development.
“In our company, we will train our people to deliver quality jobs with the right standards,” he said.
According to him, the firm was working towards contribution its 10 gigabytes power generation, which was the essence of the Memorandum of Understanding recently signed with the Federal Government.
The Siemens boss added, “Our main focus in Nigeria is power. We can provide world-class technology for generation, transmission and distribution.”
He said professionalism was key to helping Nigeria to achieve major feats in the power sector, stressing that there was no need for Nigeria to have turbines and power plants that were currently non-functional considering the high energy need of the country.
Restating the firm’s policy, he said, “We won’t sell our future for short-term profits.”
The firm, he noted, was currently putting finishing touches to a couple of its power projects at Geregu power plant, Lekki, among others.
Last year, the firm had announced plans to build a new service workshop for heavy duty gas turbines in Nigeria as a commitment to the power sector reform.
The firm said then that it would also support Nigeria with a study on the integration of renewables in the country’s energy mix.
President Goodluck Jonathan, former Minister of Power, Prof. Bart Nnaji, had led a powerful political and industrial delegation, on a visit to the Siemens gas turbine factory in Berlin in April last year.
An agreement was signed between the company and the ministry of power in order to strengthen their strategic partnership.
The firm had said, “Under the terms of the agreement, Siemens will on a case-by-case basis consider to support the financing of power plant projects in Nigeria.
“Furthermore, the Nigerian company, Scanpower and Siemens signed a technical partnership agreement for the construction of a 1,600 megawatts gas turbine power station at Lekki in Lagos State.”
Siemens also said then that a reliable and affordable supply of electricity was the decisive factor in further developing Nigeria’s economy and society.
Siemens has already delivered gas turbines to the power stations, Afam V and Geregu I, which ranks among the most reliable and available plants in this country.