Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has said certain revolutionary measures were taken to ensure that Nigerians enjoy more stable and regular electricity supply.
He said the feats were achieved with the support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of his renewed hope agenda to galvanise the economy.
Reviewing the activities of the Ministry of Power in the last one year on the eve of the October 1 independence celebration, the minister also revealed that more than 40 per cent of Nigerian electricity consumers were already enjoying over 20 hours of regular and stable electricity across the nation.
He said that was due to the radical and bold steps that were taken.
According to him, the president had consistently advocated that Nigeria could be great and achieve breakthrough in industrialization, through a stable and consistent power supply.
He said one of the major and significant achievements of his ministry within the last one year was that “Today, we are generating over 5,500 megawatts of power.”
He said the ministry was working to improve on the record, by the end of the year, as power supply constituted one of the campaign promises of President Tinubu.
Adelabu emphasized the need for Nigerians to know that stable electricity in any economy could not be overemphasized and for most developed nations, the first thing they got right was to achieve reliable, functional, and affordable electricity, especially for their industries, businesses, institutions, and households.
“This is why you see great economies like Korea, China, Europe, and North America industrialized today. Their stability in electricity supply has been instrumental to their economic growth and industrial development.
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“That’s why we say that we must achieve this for Nigeria as a country. We need to achieve the requisite economic growth and industrial development. Our dear president, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, included this in the Renewed Hope Agenda as a major electoral policy to Nigerians. In his New Year speech on the 1st of January, 2024, he emphasized the need for the country to have stable, functional, and reliable electricity to drive other critical sectors. This is the only way we can achieve the required economic growth and industrial development. In fact, none of the critical sectors can function optimally without electricity stability and functionality.
“Therefore, our vision is to ensure that we provide households, businesses, and institutions (educational and health institutions as well as industries) with stable electricity supply. This will enable them to power their activities, improve their capacity, and create more jobs.
“In a country like South Korea, industrial giants like Samsung, Hyundai, and LG didn’t just become global giants overnight. They were supported by the government through the provision of stable and reliable electricity for their operations. This is the vision we have for Nigeria. At the end of the day, a large proportion of our population will be electrified, industries will enjoy stable electricity, and this will increase production and create employment for our people”, the minister said.
The minister added that the mandate of the ministry was to engender national development through the formulation of appropriate policies, the establishment of proper structures and institutions to ensure or achieve stable, functional, reliable, and affordable electricity supply to households, businesses, institutions, and industries.
“This will enable us to achieve the desired economic growth and industrial development. We also provide general oversight to ensure the overall well-being of the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). This is the mandate of the Ministry.
“However, we are not doing this alone. We work in conjunction with our agencies. These include: Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN); Rural Electrification Agency (REA); Nigerian Electricity Management Service Agency (NEMSA); Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET); National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN); and Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO).
“These are agencies under the Ministry of Power which are like our foot soldiers.
“Apart from the agencies under the Ministry of Power, we also operate through 27 power generating companies, including hydroelectric power companies and thermal companies (which are gas-powered generating companies). We also have 11 Electricity Distribution Companies across the country that operates.
“In generation, we rely on the generating companies. In transmission, we rely on the government-owned Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which is a direct agency under the Ministry of Power.
“In distribution, we rely on the 11 distribution companies that we have across the country.
“We also work in conjunction with some international development agencies like the World Bank, the African Development Bank, GIZ, USAID, and so on. These are multilateral institutions that support the Ministry of Power”, Adelabu said.
He continued: “This administration was inaugurated on May 29, 2023. However, ministers were appointed on August 21, 2023. We are just a bit over a year old in office.
“Upon resumption, we had an installed generation capacity of 13,000 megawatts, but we were only producing, transmitting, and distributing about 4,000 megawatts of power to the entire country.
“This was quite low and unacceptable given our population and level of economic activities. Therefore, we were determined to improve the situation.
“At that time, there was epileptic supply. Almost all customers, both residential and commercial, could not be guaranteed 12-15 hours of supply. Additionally, the adoption of renewable energy was skeletal in terms of solar or wind sources of energy.
“Between then and now, which is about a year, there has been significant improvement. Today, our installed capacity is over 14,000 megawatts of power due to the addition of the newly commissioned Zungeru hydroelectric power plant and improved capacity of some of the existing power plants.
“Moreover, the major achievement is the fact that today we generate over 5,500 megawatts of power, we transmit and distribute it, and over 40% of customers today enjoy over 20 hours of regular power supply across the nation. You can see that there is a significant improvement between when we came in and now, which we intend to improve further,” he said.
