Minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde\u00a0 Fashola, says his
\nministry is constrained, appealing to Nigerians to exercise patience.<\/p>\n
Speaking with state house correspondents at the end of the federal
\nexecutive council meeting, Fashola lamented the effect of the raining
\nseason on ministries departments and agencies responsible for civil works
\nand road maintenance.<\/p>\n
The minister said during his tour in the first quarter, he identified 61
\ncritical intervention spots across the country \u00a0 \u201cbut we did not get the
\nbudgetary support to make that intervention\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst, I want to sincerely empathise with commuters using the roads at
\nthis moment,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen what is happening on a global scale. We had made some plans
\nto forestall this kind of things. We identified 61 critical intervention
\nspots across the country following my tour in the first quarter but we did
\nnot get the budgetary support to make that intervention. So we are
\nconstrained.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will remember I had also spoken on the need for a contingency fund
\nbut even if we had the cash, if there is no appropriation, you can\u2019t spend
\nthe money and you can\u2019t anticipate and detail in advance of your current
\nwhere these emergencies will happen. But I assure you that we are
\nresponding on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will see our response. Our contractors have been notified so we urge
\nthe citizens to bear with us and also know that this government came to
\npower on the basis of a commitment to end impunity, to end corruption. So,
\nwe must do things according to process and according to law.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also spoke on the total contract sum for the Mambilla power project and
\nthe role that the government will play in the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will recall that sometimes last year, the Chinese government held a
\nsummit in South Africa, essentially what that was about was supporting and
\npartnering with African government to do their infrastructure and also
\nfunding the Agurua projects, so this was one of the projects of
\ninfrastructure that was submitted there and I think it also had the rail
\ncomponent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe money is coming from the Chinese government through their Exim bank,
\nso is an export funding support for them and an import fir us. 85 percent
\nis supposed to be financed by them and 15 per cent is our own counterpart
\nfunding. The award now triggers contract negotiations for the financing
\nside and after that is concluded the projects can now start.\u201d<\/p>\n
The minister said the project was designed to deliver 3,050 megawatts of
\npower and that the productive output would also function for water supply.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have overcome the gas challenges and the vandals and pipeline repairs
\nhave progressed and that has impacted success on the generation side. Our
\npower is going to come from sources, hydro, gas, solar and that is why we
\nare invested in mambilla fir more hydro so that when one source is
\nvulnerable we can rely on another\u2019s source,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in addition to power increase in terms of production, the
\ntransmission capacity has also increase, it has moved from the proverbial
\n5,000 to 6,700 megawatt that we can will. But the problem now is at the
\ndistribution end. For the kind of sustainable power we all want to see, it
\nmeans every part of the value chain must work. And that is why I will
\ncontinue to say that as we demonstrate our ability on generation and
\ntransmission, we will demonstrate the same on our distribution.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, what we are now putting on the grid because the DisCos can\u2019t take the
\npower is roughly about 2,000 megawatt so there is 4,000 plus averagely
\nthat is not being taken. So if you calculate for three days or five days,
\nthat your submission on 9,000 is probably not correct.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde\u00a0 Fashola, says his ministry is constrained, appealing to Nigerians to exercise patience. Speaking with state house correspondents at the end of the federal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n