Whereas the Federal Government, through the Power Minister, Adebayo Adelabu at the opening ceremony of the ongoing Nigeria Energy Summit in Lagos on Tuesday, said all is set for the government to invest well over $20bn, efforts made to let him reveal the sources of the fund failed. This therefore made many participants to lose hope and trust in the government.
According to him, “The Nigerian government is actively advancing the power sector through various measures. With a $20 billion investment plan, new power plants and transmission lines are set to be established to boost power generation and grid stability,” he said.
He added that “That is why my tenure would focus on growing power generation to 20, 000 megawatts in the next three years. But the target would be impossible without investments from all investors across the sector’s value chain. From the utilities to transmission and generation companies; everyone must be ready to invest to achieve the target,” he added.
The Minister averred that the mid and long-term power generation targets is 30,000MW by 2030, and 60,000MW by 2060 is achievable. He said enough investments must be made to not only generate power, but also on how to transmit same to end users.
He explained the huge metering gap must be closed in order to ensure that power generated would be transmitted to electricity consumers who would in turn pay for the services.
“It is enough just to generate power, but the most important thing is also to be able to get at most 90 per cent of the power to consumers that would pay for it”, he explained.
“The Nigerian electricity market is huge. So, investors must be ready for mid and long term investments before expecting to make profits. The industry needs liquidity and this can be attained through equity and debt capital,” the Minister noted.
