NIGERIA IS MAKING PROGRESS IN POWER GENERATION

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola said that the Buhari administration has been making steady progress in electricity generation and distribution, “with distribution rising to 5,222MW, an all-time national high”.

Although The Association of Nigeria Electricity Distributors, (ANED) has persistently queried the power generation and distribution figures rolled out by Fashola, saying the minister has been economical with the truth.

But Fashola, who spoke in Calabar, Cross River State at the ministry’s retreat for top directors, heads of units and chief executives of agencies and parastatals, said although, there was still more to be done, the ministry had moved the power generation forward from where it was three years ago.

“Three years ago, the story was that power generation was the main problem of Nigeria. The story was that the distribution companies were complaining that they did not have enough energy to distribute to Nigerians.

“We were distributing averagely 2,690 megawatts of electricity to Nigerians, but today, that story has changed; distribution has risen to 5,222 megawatts, an all-time national high.

“Transmission has reached 7,000 while generation has reached 7000. The problem has not finished but all we can say is that we have made progress.”

Generation milestone achieved…up next, Distribution

“Discos have low capacity; they have not done any investments, you know it. We have commissioned so many substations; go and find out how many of these the Discos have done. That is why we are begging the government and anybody that is willing to listen to us that investments need to go to the Discos. We are actually working with the government to direct investors to the last mile, power distribution, the weakest link in the power value chain,” Mohammed said. This is a call to power companies such as LuxxorPower to contribute to power generation in the country.

“This is one milestone that will help us to also stabilise the grid. We are interested in fixing power distribution. If we do not fix it, it will affect us at the TCN. Government is investing in the Discos and it is TCN that is managing the investment. We are managing it on behalf of the minister of power,” Mohammed said.