Following the March 2014 workshop that brought together leading power project and energy experts from firms in Africa, Europe and the US, as well as the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF) and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), to review and annotate the most heavily negotiated and disputed provisions within power project contracts, the identified core set of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) provisions were annotated with a list of choices and consequences for risk allocation and bankability of the PPA. To gain much needed government stakeholder perspectives and to seek buy-in for the annotated PPA, CLDP working in concert with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), held a regional workshop Abuja, Nigeria June 24-26, 2014 for utilities, transmitters, distributors and regulators.

The workshop was opened on June 24th by the representative of the Nigerian Minister of Power, but the import of the workshop was illustrated by a panel of CEOs from NBET, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), and the Africa Finance Corporation - the primary offtaker, the regulator, and the development lender respectively.  Provisions dealing with offtaker obligations, power payments, force majeure, sovereign guarantees, and dispute resolution, among others were ably presented by expert lawyers from OPIC, international and Nigerian firms.  The workshop saw spirited discussion among over 70 participants from Nigeria and Ghana comprised of both government officials and private sector stakeholders.

The workshop created a buzz of interest among the government stakeholders and private sector, resulting in an increase in the number of participants in each successive day.  Additionally, some Independent Power Producers (IPPs) who were not included due to their ongoing negotiations with NBET, expressed a strong desire to replicate the program with a focus on their staff, in-house counsel and lenders.  Finally, the issues raised and the perspectives gleaned from the workshop will be the basis for requests for reform of the power market, as well as being incorporated into the annotations that will make up the PPA Annotation tool.