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Total electrification of Nigeria has now become imperative
Nigeria s Minister of Power Saleh Mamman
The issue of 24 hours a day, seven days a week adequate electricity supply to all the villages, towns and cities in Nigeria has remained a matter of concern to many well meaning Nigerians ever since the country acquired self rule on 1 October 1960. The huge sums of money allocated to this sector have never been appropriately utilized because of the cancerous official corruption that has continued to eat deeply into the fabric of the Nigerian society, especially among the civil service and government agencies saddled with the responsibility of projects management.
Nigeria needs to increase its electricity generation from about 5,000 to 100,000 Megawatts to power the nation’s economy.
This was disclosed by the Chairman of Transcorp Group, Tony Elumelu in an interview on Arise TV on Wednesday. According to him, the nation needs to stabilize its transmission lines, provide adequate gas supply and strengthen her payment plans.
He said,
“Nigeria needs about 100,000 MW to power the economy. It also needs to stabilize the transmission lines and ensure access to gas supply.
For Nigerians to heave a sigh of relief in the sector, it needs to boost generation, fix gas supply to GenCos, boost payment of distribution and ensure power generated are taken by DisCos. Here I must commend the CBN Governor because he has helped to maintain peace in the space.
Only a little over a week ago, the Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Mr Ahmad Rufai Zakari faulted the report of the World Bank on the state of the Nigerian Power Sector. Mr Zakari, speaking on behalf of the Federal Government (FG) had referred to the Power Sector Recovery Programme Opinion Research Fact Sheet released by the World Bank as inaccurate.
According to the report,
“78% of Nigerians have less than 12 hours daily access of power supply and up to 58% of electricity consumers are unmetered.” The vehement defence by the FG did not also do much to provide reliable data to debunk the World Bank’s numbers. This gaffe, added to the recent power supply statistics in the country make it difficult for the FG’s rejoinder to be believed.
Daily Post Nigeria
Published
The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman has said that there is no plan to significantly raise Electricity Tariffs in country.
DAILY POST had reported that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had on April 26 announced it is concluding the Extraordinary Tariff Review process for the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).
He said the review was pursuant to the provisions of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA).
But, Mamman in a Twitter post on Saturday said instead of significant hike in electricity tariff, Nigerians should expect an increase in efficiency in the sector.
This, he said, will reduce tariffs while managing headwinds from foreign exchange and inflation.