President Muhammadu Buhari Monday in Abuja challenged stakeholders in
\nthe electricity sector to improve supply to Nigerians, urging them to
\nreach 7, 000 megawatts by 2021, and work towards 11, 000 megawatts by
\n2023, while ensuring better distribution to businesses and homes.<\/p>\n
The President, who witnessed an agreement signing ceremony with Siemens
\nAG at the State House, said the priority of his administration remains
\nto buoy the economy, starting with more improved supply of power that
\nwill create enabling environment for businesses to thrive.<\/p>\n
“Our goal is simply to deliver electricity to Nigerian businesses and
\nhomes. My challenge to Siemens, our partner investors in the
\nDistribution Companies, the Transmission Company of Nigeria and the
\nElectricity Regulator is to work hard to achieve 7,000 megawatts of
\nreliable power supply by 2021 and 11,000 megawatts by 2023 \u2013 in phases 1
\nand 2 respectively.<\/p>\n
“After these transmission and distribution system bottlenecks have been
\nfixed, we will seek \u2013 in the third and final phase \u2013 to drive generation
\ncapacity and overall grid capacity to 25,000 megawatts.<\/p>\n
“With our strong commitment to the development of Mambilla Hydroelectric
\nand the various solar projects under development across the country, the
\nlong-term power generation capacity will ensure adequate energy mix and
\nsustainability in the appropriate balance between urban and rural
\nelectrification,” he said.<\/p>\n
President Buhari told the management team of Siemens led by the Chief
\nExecutive Officer, Mr Joe Kaeser, that electricity remains critical to
\nthe development of Nigeria, noting that the country was blessed with
\nsignificant natural gas, hydro and solar resources for power generation
\nthat could be utilized to achieve reliable, affordable and quality
\nelectricity supply necessary for economic growth, industrialization and
\npoverty alleviation.<\/p>\n
“I recall my meeting in late August, last year, with Chancellor Merkel
\nhere in Abuja, when both our Governments committed to future cooperation
\nto support economic growth and development in Nigeria. We were clear
\nthat fixing the power sector was a key priority for this administration.<\/p>\n
“It was during that event that, CEO of Siemens AG, Mr Joe Kaeser,
\ncommitted to working with Nigeria to develop a feasible roadmap to
\nmodernise our electricity grid with support from the German
\nGovernment,” he added.<\/p>\n
The President said previous governments had explored state funded
\nsolutions through the National Independent Power Projects, and they also
\nexplored the installation of large emergency power projects.<\/p>\n
“There was also the partial privatization of the power generation and
\ndistribution sectors. These various interventions to solving the
\nelectricity problem have yielded an imbalance between the amount of
\npower generated and the amount available for consumers.<\/p>\n
“Despite over 13,000 megawatts of power generation capacity, only an
\naverage of 4,000 megawatts reliably reaches consumers. Now, we have an
\nexcellent opportunity to address this challenge. This Government’s
\npriority was to stabilise the power generation and gas supply sector
\nthrough the Payment Assurance Facility, which led to a peak power supply
\nof 5,222 MW,” he noted.<\/p>\n
President Buhari said the constraints remained at the transmission and
\ndistribution systems, adding that he had directed a team to ask Siemens
\nand Nigerian stakeholders to first focus on fixing the transmission and
\ndistribution infrastructure, especially around economic centres where
\njobs were created.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of Siemens AG said the
\ncompany would work hard to improve the electricity situation in Nigeria
\nas the country’s economy will only achieve sustainable development with
\nadequate power supply.<\/p>\n
Mr Kaeser said he would personally supervise the “Implementation
\nAgreement for the Nigerian Electrification Road map”, which also
\ninvolves the German government.<\/p>\n
President Muhammadu Buhari Monday in Abuja challenged stakeholders in the electricity sector to improve supply to Nigerians, urging them to reach 7, 000 megawatts by 2021, and work towards 11,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60483,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n