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THE MICHIGAN CHRONICLE Global Village
Power cuts to end, Nigeria promises
ALL AFRICA — Nigerian
president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan said the other day that he planned to eliminate constant power outage in the country by 2012 through the introduction of “revolution- ary” policies to tackle the plethora of challenges bedevil- ing the sector.
The president’s aspiration
was unveiled in Lagos at the launch of the Power Sector Road Map, the execution of which, he said, would be fast- tracked to create numerous employment
opportunities,
while also revamping the na- tion’s ailing economy.
President Jonathan, who
said, “We need a revolution in the power sector,” also stated that his administration had identified most of the bottle- necks impeding efficient and effective electricity supply in the country.
“By God’s grace, by Decem-
ber 2012, Nigeria will not only celebrate one day of uninter- rupted electricity supply, but we would celebrate one week, one month and so on of unin- terrupted electricity supply,” he said.
President Jonathan, how-
ever, believes that this will only be possible through the support of the various stake- holders who are currently being engaged in discussions on sustainable ways out of the current power quagmire.
New policies Parts of the revolution-
ary polices the president dis- cussed include:
• The construction of what he described as "a super trans- mission network of 7000 ki- lovolts; the procurement and design will commence next year." This is in acknowledge- ment of the current weakness in electricity infrastructure, which frustrates the evacu- ation of electricity from the plants to the homes of Nigeri- ans through the national grid.
• Review of current tariff structure on the grounds that Nigeria's current structure is the lowest and needs to be re- viewed to encourage fresh in- vestments, while not unmind- ful of the purchasing power of the masses.
• Generation of additional 5000 megawatts within the next three years from new and existing independent power plants.
• Active and serious use of hydro, nuclear and coal power, especially coal in states like Gombe, Enugu, Kogi and Benue, states in the next two years will be more private- sector driven.
• Privatization of generation and distribution, while gov- ernment retains transmission for strategic reasons.
• Constitution of two presi- dential committees on power and the reconstitution of the board and membership of the National Electricity Regulato- ry Commission (NERC) whose names have been forwarded to the National Assembly for ap- proval.
Power challenges The president said his as-
sessment of the issues affect- ing the sector over the past few years revealed that “the sector’s challenge to effective electricity delivery in Nigeria include the absence of sus- tained policies and deliberate- ly deploying long-term power development strategy, the ab- sence of and low implementa- tion of reforms to fast track all issues pertaining to the power sector.”
The president said govern-
ment was convinced that “it is only by constructively engag- ing the private sector as part- ners in this journey of nation- al transformation that we can be assured of success.”
He added that constant
power outages are perhaps the greatest paradox of life in Ni- geria, which despite producing more than two million barrels per day of crude oil, relied on diesel generators to power ev- erything from phone chargers to luxury hotels.
Powerful vested interests
World Bank country direc-
tor Onno Ruhl, who noted that successive governments had tried to fix the power prob- lems, stressed that powerful vested interests such as bil- lionaire tycoons who import diesel and generators, and the chronic mismanagement of state-run utilities frustrated
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan
progress in the sector. He said, “This roadmap
brings us to a point where we finally have a realistic plan that is actually technically, commercially sound, in terms of the role of the private sector, the role of government.
“The question is, will all
the partners behind it actually rally around it and implement it. If it gets implemented, it will deliver results.”
Ruhl noted that fighting the
graft and mismanagement that had hobbled the sector will be more of a political test than laying out plans, adding that in the challenges to reform listed by ministers and officials, the issue of corruption was con- spicuous by its absence.
Olusegun Aganga, finance
minister, said, “If there is any- thing that unites Nigerians, it is a desire for power, electric- ity,” adding that his ministry was focused on creating the right environment to attract investment as quickly as pos- sible.
He said the nation had the
world’s seventh largest natu- ral gas reserves and planned to use them as the source for improving power supply.
Diezani Allison-Madueke,
petroleum minister, said gas supply to the power sector was already at an all-time high but estimated that demand from domestic energy producers would rise to 3 billion cubic feet per day by 2015 from around 800 million now.
She said that President
Jonathan had already an- nounced plans for a $3.5 bil- lion transmission “supergrid” to be jointly financed with the private sector, while the priva- tisation agency had said it was seeking core investors for 11 state-run electricity distribu- tion firms.
Allison-Madueke said some
of the firms in highly populated and relatively developed areas such as Lagos were likely to attract significant
interest
from foreign investors, poten- tially triggering bidding wars, adding that others in less de- veloped areas and with greater infrastructure challenges may be less attractive.
$12 billion investment in energy,
transportation In another development,
Vice President Namadi Sambo CONTACT US:
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said the federal government has invested $12 billion in tackling the problem of power supply and the resuscitation of the nation’s rail transporta- tion system.
Sambo, who was address-
ing members of the Nigerian community in Bujumbura, shortly after the inaugura- tion of President Pierre Nku- runziza of Burundi, said the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan was doing everything within its power to reduce the problem of poverty in the country.
Vice President Sambo,
said, “The administration of President Goodluck Jonathan is doing everything to ensure that we drive out poverty from Nigeria and also transform our society and improve our economy,” adding that the em- phasis of the government was to address the power supply problem in the country deci- sively.
He noted, “We are doing a
lot in the real sector, we are doing a lot in the power sector to ensure that power supply is being addressed with all the seriousness it deserves.
“The government is invest-
ing over $10 billion in the generation, transmission and distribution of power so as to attract direct foreign investors in the sector.”
The vice president stated
that government would contin- ue to put emphasis on medium and large power plants as well as coal power plants for the generation of electricity supply in the country.
Stressing that the govern-
ment was putting a lot of effort into developing the transport system, Sambo said, “Our old railway system is now brought back to use and new railway is being built. (Millions are) being invested in this area.”
Earlier, the head of Nigeri-
an Mission in Burundi, Sheidu Momoh, had said that the few Nigerians residing in the coun- try had been contributing to the development of the coun- try.
He called on the federal
government to take advantage of the return of peace in Bu- rundi to acquire permanent structures for the Nigerian Embassy in the country.
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