Business
FG Reassures On Power Supply
The Minister of Information, Mr Labaran Maku, last Friday again reiterated the Federal Government’s determination to improve power supply in the country.
Maku gave the re-assurance at Ebocha, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State as part of the Good Governance tour of the state.
He said the Federal Government was also collaborating with states to implement the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), adding that government had encouraged the private sector to build power projects aimed at increasing power generation in the country.
‘’We are also working with state governments under the NIPP progamme. Under the NIPP, we are building 10 additional power plants. We have inspected the fourth one here.
‘’So, together, if you look at the activities that are going on in the power sector, by private people such as the Geometrics, which we have inspected at Aba, and this one by the Rivers State government and the additional ones they are building , several other states, Bayelsa and Delta, and quite a number of them are building additional power plants.
‘’So, I want to assure Nigerians that from what we are seeing on ground, from the end of this year onwards, I believe that there will be greater stability of power in the country . Even now, there is marginal increase in power generation.
‘’We have taken it to less than 2,000 megawatts to over 4,000 megawatts now.’’
He said with additional work on power plants, there would be greater stability in power supply from the end of this year to 2014.
‘’Let me re-assure Nigerians that as far as power supply is concerned, our country is moving in the right direction, far better than it used to be in the past, so let’s keep working together so that Nigeria can be lighted up 24 hours.
‘’That is the mission.’’
Earlier, Governor Chibuike Amaechi had said the state had four power plants, adding that the plants had power capacities of 150 to 180 megawatts.
‘’We have four power plants. We will take you to one of them. There is one that is 180, one machine 180 megawatts. This is 150 megawatts, six machines. There is one that we have in Afam which is just one machine 180 megawatts.
‘’That one was built by my administration. There again, we are building a second 180 megawatts to make it 360 megawatts, so that we can make sure that at any time one of them goes bad, then, we have the other ones to rely on.’’
Amaechi said government was gradually trying to meet regular power supply to the cities in the state.