‘Buhari Targets 22,000 Megawatts Electricity By 2023’

The Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, has said the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration will bequeath about 22,000 megawatts installed capacity of electricity by 2023.
He said this at the Presidential Score Card of the Ministry of Power in Abuja.
The programme is an annual event where the various ministries present their achievements to the media and the general public.
Aliyu said the administration had embarked on several transformational projects to bequeath an additional 4,000 megawatts of generating capacity to existing megawatts.
He said as part of the plans to achieve the 4,000 additional megawatts, the 700 megawatts Zungeru Hydro Power Plant would be completed in the first quarter of 2023.
Aliyu said the administration would work toward operationalisation of the 240 megawatts Afam III and 300 megawatts Okpai Phase II among others.
“We will set the country on a stable path for 10,000 megawatts of supplied energy.
“Today we are at 8,000 megawatts with 5,000 megawatts on-grid and above 3,000 mega watts of industrial captive off-grid and we will leave an installed capacity of almost 22,000 megawatts,” he said.
According to the Minister, there are ongoing programames with facilities and investments secured at more than three billion dollars to eliminate the gap between transmission capacity and supplied energy.
“The Hydropower component of the Kashimbilla Multipurpose Dam was designed and upgraded from six megawatts to 40 megawatts.
“This was in phase one of the evacuation infrastructure, covering 245km of 132kv transmission lines and three substations, connecting Takum, Wukari, Rafin Kada, Dounga and Yandev in Taraba and Benue States.
“The Phase two of the evacuation infrastructure is currently at 45 per cent completion level.
“This is covering 56km extension of the 132 kilovolts (kV) transmission line from Yandev to Makurdi and complete rehabilitation of the Yandev substation.
“Phase two of the evacuation infrastructure will lead to the electrification of 24 host communities, including Zaki-Biam, Anyi, Buruku, Birama, Bibi, Shibong, among others within Benue State,” he said.
Aliyu said his administration had changed the narrative of the sector from consumption spending on subsidies to real infrastructure spending.