FG says Power Generation to hit 10,000MW in December.

 Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo

The amount of power generated in Nigeria will hit 10,000 megawatts by December this year, the Federal Government has said.

Government’s assurance on Monday was despite the erratic power supply witnessed across Nigeria in recent months.

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, who disclosed this to an Indian delegation on power, stated that the Federal Government would soon summon a stakeholders’ forum of all electricity distribution and generation companies, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Nigerian Electricity Management Liability Company and Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company.

Nebo, according to a statement issued by the Deputy Director, Press, Federal Ministry of Power, Mr. Timothy Oyedeji, also said the government would hold the National Council on Power in August in order to look at measures to further boost electricity supply to Nigerians, adding that “Nigeria will hit 10,000MW by the end of 2014.”

The minister revealed that the Federal Government was considering a permanent nature for the NBET, and noted that the bulk trader was conceived as a stop-gap agency for the transitional stage of the power sector.

“We might need to consider NBET a body that will outlast the current proposition. With the new thinking, NBET can be structured on a Public Private Partnership model that is permanent in nature, as electricity is always an ongoing concern,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of Discos, the Chief Executive Officer, Eko Distribution Company, Oladele Amoda, told the delegation that what informed his firm’s technical arrangement with Tata of India was because India had kept faith with the transformation of its power sector since 2002.

He enjoined the delegation to take seriously the issue of transfer of technology, insisting that Nigeria’s bulk electricity trader needs input in local content to fast-track the development of the country’s power market.

According to Amoda, India’s model had helped Nigeria to transform it power sector.

The Indian High Commissioner, AR Ghenashyam, assured that in no distant future Nigeria will not only develop a robust electricity market for its domestic use but will be a big player in the region.

He said India recorded over 400 per cent leap in generation capacity in the last 10 years, adding that this was made possible because of the competitiveness of the market.

Ghenashyam said Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan were already enjoying from seamless cross-border market and “this has further boosted confidence and credibility for investment flow into the power sector.”

PUNCH