Regular collapse of national grid may make or mar W’Bank’s $1bn loan approval
Considering its core industrial support policy, the ongoing $1bn loan discussion with the World Bank may receive the needed speed to save the nation from total power collapse following embarrassing momentary collapse of the national grid.
On the other hand, the scenario may cause the global fund to query what form of investment so far made that is leading to the momentary collapse of national grid in the last couple of years.
Recall that during the just concluded Spring meeting of the World Bank and IMF in USA, the Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed had sat with officials of the World Bank to discuss access to fresh $1bn loan to drive stability in the nation’s power sector which had remained in under-performance state despite huge inflow of funds over the years.
Business Hilights gathered that the nation’s power generation fell to a record low on Tuesday following the collapse of the national grid on Monday night even though recovery activities are still ongoing.
According to the Nigeria Electricity System Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), availability stood at 1,675MW as of 6.00 am on Tuesday.
Recall that TCN had said on its official Twitter handle that “System disturbance: This is to announce that the grid experienced system collapse at 23:44hrs on 15th April. System restoration commenced immediately and has advanced. TCN management has commenced an investigation to ascertain the cause(s) of the collapse. Attendant discomfort is regretted.”
Whereas the system operator put the nation’s installed generation capacity at 12,910.40MW; available capacity at 7,652.60MW; transmission wheeling capacity at 8,100MW; and the peak generation ever attained at 5,375MW, many parts of the country had continued to record epileptic power supplies despite the pledges of the government in 2015.
Industry observers have started doubting the kind of sector performance report that may come from the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola following the presidential directive to all cabinet members during the last Federal Executive Council meeting ahead of dissolution of the government for the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term.
