(Bloomberg) -- Nigerian authorities will seek credit from the US Export–Import Bank to fund a solar power project being developed by Sun Africa LLC, a renewable energy provider, according to the company.

The unit of Urban Green Technologies LLC is developing solar power facilities for Nigeria’s Niger Delta Power Holding Co. The projects, which have passed through feasibility studies, technical analysis and land-permitting phases in the past two years, are due for loan processing with the export credit agency, Adam Cortese, chief executive officer at the US-based Sun Africa said in an email. 

Nigerian finance ministry is expected within the next 60 days to send “final commitment application” to EXIM for the facility, after which the lender will conduct due diligence on the projects before the loan is finalized, Cortese said, refuting an earlier report by a Nigerian newspaper that the firm had agreed to lend $1.5 billion for the project. A spokesman to the Nigerian minister of finance did not immediately respond to request for comment. 

Authorities in Africa’s largest economy plan to integrate solar into their energy mix to boost supply, as poor maintenance and insufficient investment in the transmission network have resulted in only about a third of the country’s installed capacity being dispatched by the grid daily. That’s just about a fraction of what’s needed in the nation of more than 200 million people, making a strong case for improved public and private investments in alternative energy sources.

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