SEBOF queries NNPC’s plan for 3 new power plants in Abuja, Kaduna, Kano
…Worried on why Corporation dumped reviving refineries
The recent expression of readiness by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to build additional Independent Power Plants (IPP) in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano has received criticisms from South East Business Owners Forum (SEBOF), a coalition of industry and business operators in the five South East states.
Reacting to the NNPC’s Chief Financial Officer and Chairman of the Board of NNPC Gas and Power Investment Company (GPIC), Isiaka Abdulrazaq at the inaugural board meeting of GPIC in Abuja, a top official of SEBOF in Orlu, Imo State, Chief Uche Ngumoha told Business Hilights South East Bureau chief that “It is total maginalization of South East business interests if a national body like GPIC thinks that it is created to cater for only businesses in the North”.
According to him, “Deep pocket businesses that deserve IPP are not only in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano. There is high concentration of industries in South East especially in Orlu-Nnewi axis that had been suffering power crisis that are in dire need of IPP”.
“You are aware that Enugu Disco has become a boil in the buttocks of every industry and household in the region. So, we need the same NNPC power plants even more than the areas GPIC has picked.
Chief Ngumoha therefore called for a review of the location of the planned new IPP by the NNPC to show equitable spread and federal character.
On the sorry state of all four national refineries, the SEBOF official decried how the current management of NNPC deliberately allowed the refineries to rot away recalling that “even one of the moribund refineries was built by President Muhammdu Buhari in Kaduna as Head of State.
Explaining more on the planned three new power plants, Abdulrazaq said the plants when completed would add 4,000 megawatts of power to stabilise the national grid.
Abdulrazaq described the GPIC as a strategic company through which the NNPC would create more value for the country, adding that by the time the IPPs come on stream in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano, the small and medium enterprises in the areas would be better for it.
He said, “The Gas and Power Investment Company Limited is a company which the NNPC has set up basically to focus on how it can create value and monetise the nation’s abundant gas resources.
“The company will also be focused on developing power stations, fertiliser plants, as well as petrochemical plants across the states.”
Abdulrazaq noted that NNPC had set up the board to enable the company to achieve its set targets within a very short period of time and that the board meeting had mapped out strategies to properly guide the company on its key performance indicators.
He said the setting up of the company would add value in terms of payment of taxes and the generation of more revenue for the country.
Abdulrazaq stated that the company and all the IPPs that would emanate from it would also generate more job opportunities for Nigerians, adding that the fertiliser project in Bayelsa would produce fertiliser to boost agriculture in the South-South and other regions.
Also, the Chief Operating Officer, Gas and Power, NNPC, Saidu Mohammed, stated that the coming on stream of GPIC would help the NNPC transform into an integrated energy company with the production of 4,000MW of power at strategic locations.
Explaining more on the targets of GPIC, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division at NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, explained that the GPIC was established as a subsidiary under the Gas and Power Directorate of NNPC to enable the corporation to monetise the abundant gas resources across the country for the benefit of all Nigerians and the economy.
