The former Minister of Power, Barth Nnaji has revealed that all efforts put in place to ensure Nigerians have access to reliable power supply are being undermined by petroleum providers and generator vendors in the country.
Nnaji who made this remark on Thursday while speaking at “The South East Political Roundtable” on Flo FM in Umuahia, Abia State claimed that one of the key concerns of Nigerians was the national grid’s continuous failure.
The professor affirmed that the Federal Government claims that, in spite of the industry’s privatisation of its electricity generation and distribution units, it has invested N7 trillion in direct interventions in the power sector since November 2013.
Nnaji, the Chairman of Geometric Power in Aba, stated that sellers of generators and diesel suppliers provide serious difficulties for those in the power generation sector.
While naming the cabal in the industry, he said there are two main parties to consider: generator sellers and diesel suppliers.
According to him, Nigeria uses a lot of generators because of its high electricity consumption and the need of its business community to operate without interruption. The diesel suppliers believe that their industry will collapse in the face of a reliable electricity source.
Nnaji added that, similar to other industries, the power sector had a cabal that profited from the problems caused by the inadequate supply of power. During his time in office, he related an incident in which some guys turned off the power to thousands of people by reducing it to 30 KVA.
He said that the firm that supplied the diesel had funded the operation. According to a 2021 World Bank evaluation, 74% of the country’s power customers are not satisfied with the supply of electricity statewide.
Although 93% of metered power users paid their bills on time, 78% of electricity consumers countrywide had access to less than 12 hours of power each day.
According to media reports, Dangote Group aims to boost the country’s energy output and boost its economy by producing electricity at the Numan Refinery and supplying it to the national grid.
A recent report claims that Ghana is preparing to sell electricity to Nigeria as part of its efforts to increase access to energy.
There are strong indications that in order to lessen the effects of the recent increase in petrol prices imposed by producers, the federal government is considering providing a new subsidy for power production companies (GenCos).
According to reports, a new arrangement for the sector is nearing completion, with the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) working with important industry parties.
The sector’s stakeholders maintain that a subsidy will result in lower electricity user rates and a better national electricity supply.
