The Minister of Power; Works and Housing, Raji Fashola, has
blamed inadequate electricity supply to consumers on lack of sufficient
financial investments in the power sector.
He stated this at the weekend during a chat with the media
in Abuja.
According to Fashola, although the country has expended what
may appear sizeable, the money so far spent was inadequate to address the
current challenges.
He also noted that in spite of the already installed
12,000MW power capacity, the country is only enjoying about 6,000MW because of
sabotage resulting from broken gas pipelines, poor planning of gas supply and
evacuation.
The Minister said: “When I hear that we have spent a lot of
money on the power sector, I say that we haven’t spent enough money and that is
why we are still talking about the need for investments to come in.
Yes, what
we have spent may look sizeable but it doesn’t provide enough power for our
consumption as a nation.
“But I must say that what some people have said about
federal government spending on the power sector is not accurate – maybe because
we think in our native language and speak in English.
“People say ‘Oh, we spend money but there is nothing to show
for it.’ There is something to show for it. The plants are there.
“The total installed capacity that the nation can look
forward to today is 12,000MW. That is what we bought with our money – that is
the installed capacity.
“However, the plants are not producing 12,000MW of power
because either pipelines are broken, or gas supply was not properly planned or
because evacuation was not properly planned. Those are the challenges that we
have responsibility now to deal with.
“What we haven’t gotten is the optimum efficiency that these
power plants can deliver.”
Fashola further blamed the ignorance of Nigerians about the
economics of power as being responsible the huge electricity bills owed by many
households and government formations.
“I think that we have perhaps not fully understood the
economics of power as a nation. That is why you probably see that even
Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of government formations owe power bills.
They don’t owe telephone bills. That speaks about the importance that we
ascribe to them,” he added.
By Chijioke Jannah
