Nigerians Now Enjoys 20 Hours Electricity Daily – Minister

Over 40 per cent of Nigerian electricity consumers are currently enjoying over 20 hours of regular electricity supply across the nation, Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said.

Mr Adelabu disclosed this on Sunday in a statement reviewing the activities of the power ministry in the last year.

He explained that certain revolutionary measures were taken to ensure that Nigerians enjoy a more stable and regular electricity supply.

“Moreover, the major achievement is the fact that today we generate over 5,500 megawatts of power, we transmit and distribute it, and over 40 per cent of customers today enjoy over 20 hours of regular power supply across the nation. You can see that there is a significant improvement between when we came in and now, which we intend to improve further,” Mr Adelabu said.

He said all these were achieved with the support of President Bola Tinubu as part of his renewed hope agenda to galvanise the economy.

He noted that the president has consistently said that Nigeria can be great and achieve breakthroughs in industrialisation through a stable and consistent power supply.

Mr Adelabu emphasised the need for Nigerians to realise that stable electricity in any economy cannot be overemphasised.

“This is why you see great economies like Korea, China, Europe, and North America industrialised today. Their stability in electricity supply has been instrumental to their economic growth and industrial development. That’s why we say that we must achieve this for Nigeria as a country. We need to achieve the requisite economic growth and industrial development. Our dear president, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, included this in the Renewed Hope Agenda as a major electoral policy for Nigerians.

“In his New Year speech on the 1st of January, 2024, he emphasised the need for the country to have stable, functional, and reliable electricity to drive other critical sectors. This is the only way we can achieve the required economic growth and industrial development. None of the critical sectors can function optimally without electricity stability and functionality.

“Therefore, our vision is to ensure that we provide households, businesses, and institutions (educational and health institutions as well as industries with stable electricity supply. This will enable them to power their activities, improve their capacity, and create more jobs,” he said.

According to him, in a country like South Korea, industrial giants like Samsung, Hyundai, and LG didn’t just become global giants overnight.

“They were supported by the government through the provision of stable and reliable electricity for their operations. This is the vision we have for Nigeria. At the end of the day, a large proportion of our population will be electrified, industries will enjoy stable electricity, and this will increase production and create employment for our people,” he added.

The Minister noted that the mandate of the ministry is to engender national development through the formulation of appropriate policies and the establishment of proper structures and institutions to ensure or achieve stable, functional, reliable, and affordable electricity supply to households, businesses, institutions, and industries.

“This will enable us to achieve the desired economic growth and industrial development. We also provide general oversight to ensure the overall well-being of the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). This is the mandate of the Ministry. However, we are not doing this alone. We work in conjunction with our agencies.

“Apart from the agencies under the Ministry of Power, we also operate through 27 power generating companies, including hydroelectric power companies and thermal companies (which are gas-powered generating companies). We also have 11 Electricity Distribution Companies across the country that operate.

“We also work in conjunction with some international development agencies like the World Bank, the African Development Bank, GIZ, USAID, and so on. These are multilateral institutions that support the Ministry of Power,” Mr Adelabu said.

He said upon assuming office, the country had an installed generation capacity of 13,000 megawatts, but it was only producing, transmitting, and distributing about 4,000 megawatts of power to the entire country.

This, he said, was quite low and unacceptable given the population and level of economic activities.

“Therefore, we were determined to improve the situation. At that time, there was epileptic supply. Almost all customers, both residential and commercial, could not be guaranteed 12-15 hours of supply,” he said.

Additionally, he said the adoption of renewable energy was skeletal in terms of solar or wind sources of energy.

“Between then and now, which is about a year, there has been significant improvement. Today, our installed capacity is over 14,000 megawatts of power due to the addition of the newly commissioned Zungeru hydroelectric power plant and improved capacity of some of the existing power plants,” he added.