Adetutu Folasade-Koyi, Abuja
The Federal Government assured, yesterday, that Nigerians would begin to enjoy stable power supply from 2021. For starters, the government assured of 7,000 megawatts of power, next year, which will peak at 11,000 megawatts by 2023.
Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed disclosed these at a press conference in Abuja, where he highlighted the achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.
Mohammed said “inadequate power supply, hallmarked by regularly blackouts, has stifled Nigeria’s economic development. It is, perhaps, the single most formidable obstacle to the country’s economic development.
“But, following an agreement with German company, Siemens, in July 2019, to boost power supply in Nigeria, the stage is set for the perennial power problem to become a thing of the past.
“Under the three-phase agreement, Nigerians will enjoy 7,000 megawatts of reliable power supply by the end of 2021 (phase 1), 11,000 megawatts by the end of 2023 (phase 2) and 25,000 megawatts in the third phase.
“To put things in perspective, Nigeria’s current power generation capacity is more than 13,000 megawatts, but only an average of 3,400 megawatts reliably reach consumers.
“In essence, the current amount of power that reaches consumers will more than double by the end of next year. In addition, this will create thousands of jobs and wil leapfrog the country into the next level of industrial and social development…” Government “plans to drive generation capacity and overall grid capacity to 25,000 megawatts,” he added.
On job creation, the minister explained that the 774,000 Nigerians who would be employed for the Special Public Works programme, would earn a monthly allowance of N20,000; for three months.
Mohammed also gave details of how the APC-led federal government has recovered, in one year, N81.23 billion; through the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC)
“The fight against corruption, a cardinal programme of the Administration, continued unabated during the period under review.
“The leading anti-corruption agencies have been unrelenting in facing down the cankerworm of corruption. In the last one year alone, the ICPC) has recovered assets worth N81.23 billion.
“The breakdown are as follows: N 41.98 billion (Money restrained on review of MDAs’ Personnel Cost Expenditure and Capital Development Fund); N35.011 billion (Lands, buildings and vehicles and vehicles) N1.167 billion (Cash in Treasury Single Account); N0.77 billion (Recoveries from constituency projects tracked); N 1.097 billion(Completed constituency projects on return of contractors to site); N 0.865 billion (Cash-Other Accounts) and $1.113 million (Cash-Other Domiciliary accounts, converted at N305 to one dollar).”
