Past governments’ responsible for epileptic power supply – Minister of Power

Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu has said that past neglect of the power sector is the major cause of slow development of the sector and consequently epileptic power supply.

The Minister, who presented 16 memos at the Federal Executive Council meeting chaired by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday, disclosed that the present administration has done more than was tenable in previous administrations to bridge the power deficits for improved electricity supply.

The projects which seek to increase the power generation currently pegged at 5,000 MW, will cost $65,606,420, €15,152,651 and N31,360,272,397.

Aliyu described the nation’s transmission grid as weak and unable to evacuate and distribute sufficient electricity, which according to him will constitute a major problem ahead.

He however noted that the Federal Government has placed order for new power equipment and assures that Nigerians in no time will see the outcome of the ongoing investments.

“Today, I presented to the council 16 memos, which I seek for council’s approval and the council graciously approved all of them. At this point, let me say what these approvals will do to the nation’s electricity supply.

“As we’re all aware, the major problem we’re having in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) is to be able to evacuate sufficient electricity and distribute them. That is to say, we have a very weak transmission grid and distribution segment of the value chain.

“We may not be having much problem with generation. So, unless we’re able to strengthen the electricity grid, which is nationwide, and to expand, and to be able to evacuate, what the grid can take to consumers, we will have a lot of problems ahead of us.

“So, what we’re doing currently through various and several interventions is to be able to repair the grid by constructing new transmission lines, bringing in new equipment to replace the old ones at our substations.

“So, the operational capacity, as you all know now is hovering around 5,000 megawatts and the transmission and distribution. So, these projects that we brought to council today and got approvals are all geared towards strengthening the willing capacity of the transmission and towards distribution.

“Even though as you all know, the distribution segment of the NESI is been privatised, but we cannot fold our arms and allow them to continue not to do much in order to evacuate what the transmission can bring. So, these memos, although 16 of them but they’re all geared towards achieving what I’ve just explained.”