…Says Nigeria wasted 15 yrs on under-investment
Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufa’i, has lamented 15 years of propping up the electricity industry but without achieving set objectives.
Speaking at the Nigeria Energy Exhibition and Conference, in Lagos yesterday, el-Rufa’i declared that the country has lost about 15 years on efforts in investment in the energy sector.
According to him, the clear roadmap for structural reforms set up by the Obasanjo government in the electrical, power and oil and gas sectors were protracted, or abandoned, by his immediate successors.
“As examples, the investments in power generation and transmission infrastructure that were initiated by the Obasanjo government were either put on hold between 2007 and 2010, or largely jettisoned by his successor. The first version of the Electricity Industry Bill, which I had the privilege as head of BPE to initiate and led in drafting, was ready by 2003, but was not presented to the National Assembly and of course we all know that it was not enacted then”, he revealed.
He also recalled that there are interventions proposed by the World Bank to provide another $750 million to the sector in a performance for results role. In contrast, telecoms as never needed any intervention of this nature since deregulation in 2001.
El-Rufa’i pointed out that the situation in the power sector suggests that why there are significant roles for the state and FG, the private sector has to be the largest source of investment, management, and know-how for sustainable and affordable electricity provision.
He added that if these structural bottlenecks are not addressed within a public policy perspective that gives privacy to serious private sector leadership in the power sector, even the most determined minister of power can only engage in heroic, but likely futile, labour. Furthermore, he said the same trajectory of experiences and disappointments and financial bleeding applies almost exactly to the oil and gas sector.
The governor applauded the National Assembly decision to expand the power constitution based to the States regarding electricity supply.
He went on to explain that many governments understand that the state of the North-West and East zones have comparative advantage in electricity production using renewables, in particular, solar, wind and hydro; adding, “In addition to renewables, the North-Central zone is also well positioned to generate power from coal. The southern States are closer to the main gas supply sources, and positioned to generate from oil and gas in addition to a lesser extent in renewables like solar and wind”.
He also said that it was in recognition of this that the Northern Governors Forum incorporated a special purpose vehicle, the Northern Nigeria renewable energy company’, to build 100 megawatt solar plants across the 19 States and the FCT, that is an initial total capacity of 2000 megawatts that may be expanded to 4000 megawatts.
Kaduna State, he revealed has already provided the land, about 200 hectares that is needed for this 100 megawatt solar plants that may be expanded to 200 megawatts in addition to 10 other Northern states. We have a total of 11 states that have provided the land and we are good to go, and we hope to commission some of these plants before May 29 2023.
The 2,000 megawatts, he said, is expected to be mostly off-grid, in order to avoid overburdening our perennial national weight transmission network.
