Factors which have favoured the establishment of kainji dam project.

The Kainji dam project is located in the northwestern part of Nigeria across the Niger river at Kainji. The project was opened in 1969 and lies in a remote, thinly populated, and very poor part of Nigeria. The dam is 66 meters high and 55 meters long and has produced a man-made lake behind it known as lake Kainji (130 km long and 1300 kilometres square).

The following are factors which have favoured the establishment of Kainji dam project:

• The sparse population of the area, allowing cheap compensation of the displaced people.
• The need to provide hydroelectric power for domestic and industrial use. Hence there was a large market for hydroelectricity which encouraged the establishment
• Presence of adequate capital for construction and maintenance of the project from the government of Nigeria, world bank, Italy, Britain, the United States of America, and the Netherlands
• The presence of the Niger river with a large volume of water that is sufficient water supply to generate power
• Presence of waterfalls – the fast flow of water to turn turbines and generate power
• The presence of narrow gorges at the place (that is a narrow gap as the Niger River flows through a low line of the plateau) – which increases the water pressure behind the dam to generate power.
• The presence of hard basement rock which offered a firm foundation for the construction of the dam
• A supportive government policy to develop multipurpose schemes to promote economic growth such as by mobilizing funds for the construction of dam projects
• High level of technology used in the setting up of the project such as the use of large turbines to generate power.