{"id":23978,"date":"2026-02-19T12:55:59","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T10:55:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/nigerias-president-germanys-merz-talk-security-power-deal-in-phone-call\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:43","slug":"nigerias-president-germanys-merz-talk-security-power-deal-in-phone-call","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigerias-president-germanys-merz-talk-security-power-deal-in-phone-call\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria&#8217;s President, Germany&#8217;s Merz talk security, power deal in phone call \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed deepening co-operation on security, power and infrastructure in a phone call, Tinubu&#8217;s office said this Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a nine-minute call on Wednesday, the two leaders discussed reviving a stalled presidential electricity project in Nigeria involving German conglomerate Siemens and Nigeria buying used German helicopters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tinubu told Merz Nigeria needed help to upgrade its power-transmission network, the President&#8217;s office said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A 2019 agreement with Siemens to rehabilitate transmission lines and power distribution substations, funded by German banks, aimed to achieve 7 000 MW of reliable power by 2021 and 11 000 MW by 2023. However, it has faced regulatory, logistical and financing challenges.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Merz said Siemens would deliver the work and that Deutsche Bank was ready to finance it, Tinubu&#8217;s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Tinubu also asked Germany to supply used helicopters to boost reconnaissance and intelligence operations in the Sahel, where worsening insecurity is pushing south toward coastal West Africa.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria and Germany have had diplomatic ties for 65 years.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The two leaders also agreed to broaden cooperation on rail transport, creative industries and skills development. Merz backed plans for a Museum of African arts, the statement said, without giving more details.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":23979,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,44],"class_list":["post-23978","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed deepening co-operation on security, power and infrastructure","published_date":"2026-02-19 14:54:00","news_description":"Nigerian President Bola Tinubu and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz discussed deepening co-operation on security, power and infrastructure","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26795,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23978\/revisions\/26795"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}