The minister for Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde
Raji Fashola (SAN) has revealed that upon his assumption of duty in 2015, he has
been able to manage little resources available to achieve improvement in power
supply.
He said he made a clear agenda for the ministry upon his emergence
as the minister and it was already yielding results.
“We are producing more power than what we met; we are
transmitting more power than what we met, and we are distributing more power
than what we met,” he said.
He added, “I met 4,000MW; we have added three (thousand)
more – 1,000MW per year. Our raw rate is a thousand megawatts (MW) every year.
“Since I came, we have completed projects they didn’t
complete, we have evacuated 800 containers they left at the port; that’s
mediocre administration… they didn’t administer a government.”
The minister, however, admitted that the numbers were not as
important as the experience of Nigerians who were the consumers.
He noted that the government has not gotten to its
destination yet, but the people can attest that power supply has improved in
the last three years.
“Nigerians will tell you, on the average, that they are
spending less money on buying diesel, they are spending less money on buying
petrol for their generators.”
While the people still spend money on fuel in the case
of a power outage, Fashola insisted that the case was not the same compared to
the previous administration.
He stressed states like Kebbi were getting about 24 hours of
power supply because there was a local arrangement in place to ensure people
pay for the electricity consumed.
The minister added that he got a report from some residents
of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital recently that the government should
reduce the “24-hour” power supply in their area because they cannot afford to
pay for it.
On power supply off the national grid, he said, ”We have
been innovative, we are targeting market, we are targeting universities, we are
promoting individuals and businesses to get their own energy under the existing
regulations that we have championed.”
“So, we have a mini-grid policy … and I see a very clear
path to solving this problem. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t remain.”
