EU, Enugu Govt. Partner To Boost Economy

The Enugu State government and the European Union (EU) have pledged to strengthen their partnerships across various sectors of the economy.

The partnership was made known when Mr Gautier Mignot, Ambassador to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) led EU delegation to a visit to Gov. Peter Mbah at the Government House, Enugu, yesterday.

The delegation comprised the Ambassador of Belgium to Nigeria, Mr Pieter Leenknegt and his Portuguese counterpart, Mr Paulos Santos, among other senior diplomats.

Speaking during the visit, Mignot said the EU was eager to strengthen partnerships with Enugu State in ways that met the administration’s expectations and align with its vision.

“The purpose of the visit is to meet you and to talk about the partnership between the European Union and Enugu State, its potential, and your vision about the future.

“Here, in Enugu State, we have been partnering in two sectors, which are education and energy. On energy, we have several projects ongoing. One is Solar for Health.

“Enugu is one of the seven states benefiting from this project and under it, we will provide technical assistance and funding for the construction of 20 solar microgrids to power 20 primary health centers and 124 small and medium-size enterprises.

“We also have the Small Hydro Power for Agro-industrial Sectors Project implemented by UNIDO.

“Finally, we have the Nigeria Energy Support Programme, which is implemented by the German Agency for International Cooperation, GIZ,” he stated.