(Ecofin Agency) - Nigeria will commission its first nuclear power plant within the next decade, Simon Pesco Mallam, head of Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (Nigatom) announced.

“We have a roadmap and that is by the mid-2020s. We hope we can get a commercial plant and add three more in five to 10 years,” the manager told The Guardian.

The official also recalled that Nigeria has a nuclear development agreement with Russia, but no contractual agreement has yet been signed. He has since denied the rumor saying that the country had signed a $20 billion agreement with Rosatom, the Russian nuclear company.

According to Mallam, nuclear power is one of the solutions to Nigeria's current energy deficit. Meanwhile, experts are more reluctant adding that the country still does not have the means to implement such a project.

Gwladys Johnson Akinocho