The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has expressed his confidence that given the various plans undertaken by the present administration in the power sector, the country may end 2016 with an additional 2, 000 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the national grid.
Fashola said this when the ministry defended its 2016 budget before the Senate Committee on Power and Mines in Abuja.
A statement from the ministry noted that he told the senators that a lot have in recent times changed in the management of power in the country.
However, going by the recent disclosure of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that the country’s electricity generation has grown to over 5000MW, Fashola’s statement thus suggest that Nigeria may end 2016 with about 7000MW of on-grid electricity supply.
According to the statement, the minister reminded the senators that electricity generation and distribution was no longer the business of the government but that of private companies who bought stakes in the sector through the privatisation programme, which has left the government with the transmission aspect as being managed by Manitoba Hydro International of Canada.
He noted that the ministry’s 2016 budget now focuses more on the transmission sector, completion of on-going projects, refurbishing of power plants and tackling gas supply issues which have been identified as key challenges of the sector.
Fashola explained that if all these are well addressed, the expected projection would boost electricity generation in the country by that figure.
He further stated that the ministry plans to take its role as a policy maker more seriously in the years to come, while all its relevant agencies will be tasked more on implementation and execution of government’s plan for the sector.
The statement equally had the Chairman of the Committee, Senator James Manager, asking the ministry to engender creativity in its management of its targets for the power sector.
Manager also stated that he expects Nigerians to reap from the sacrifices of increasing retail electricity tariff, with uninterrupted power supply.