The North Core project should allow Nigeria, through its power generation companies (GenCoS), to sell its surplus electrical energy to four countries, namely Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo. This project is financed to the tune of $570 million by the World Bank (WB), the French Development Agency (AFD) and the African Development Bank ( BAD) .The acting Director General of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TNC) and Chairman of the Executive Board of the West African Power Pool (WAPP), Sule Abdulaziz announced on June 9 in Abuja that the construction of the 330 kilovolt, 875 km long line should be completed within 2 years. “The energy that we are going to sell is energy that is not needed in Nigeria. The generators that will power this transmission line will generate this energy specifically for this project. So it's unused energy,” he said.

Nigeria already sells electricity to Benin, Togo, and Niger under an international treaty. Regularly, the country threatens to end supplies to these countries for non-payments.