75% Nigerians to have access to electricity by 2020 – Nebo

The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, on Monday said the Federal Government was installing structures to ensure that 75 per cent of Nigerians would have access to power by 2020.

Nebo gave the assurance in Abuja at the 7th International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) and Nigerian Association for Energy Economics (NAEE) Annual Conference.

“By the year 2020, 75 per cent of Nigerians would be connected to the national grid. President Goodluck Jonathan had already put in place a dynamic infrastructure that has not only been conceived, but also been implemented.

“With the extensive transmission expansion and the soon coming national grid will make that possible. We will also ensure that those who are not connected to the national grid have access.

“We are making every effort to ensure that they have power off grid that will be sufficient and adequate enough that will make them first class Nigerians,” he said.

He said that President Jonathan was addressing the neglect of the sector by successive administrations for about 17 years.

“The sector was so bad that in 17 years NEPA and PHCN did not hire an engineer, it took the President a greater effort to reverse the trend.

“Recently 523 engineers were hired for TCN. The National Training Institute is working hard to ensure provision of adequate manpower for the sector through empowerment of young engineers,” he said.

Nebo said government was injecting a huge amount of resources to ensure that numerous communities would get connected to the national grid.

“By the grace of God and by 2020, we expect that 75 per cent of Nigerians and all households are connected to the national grid,” he said.According to him, part of the efforts includes the flagging off of the Zungeru Power Station with 700 megawatts capacity by President Jonathan.

Others, he said, included the Mambila Power Project with 3,050 megawatts capacity that would further enhance access to energy and economic development.He said the ministry was developing a robust renewable energy policy that would ensure access to power by all.

“There is no way we will be able to have a free, save and secure country, counting only on one source of energy. It is not done and is not save.

“That is why one of the most critical things we are doing in the ministry of power is to have a robust energy mix that would encompass gas, wind, solar, oil and biomass,” he said.

Also speaking, the President IAEE, Prof. Wumi Iludare, said energy had three anchors which included availability, affordability and sustainability.

He said that there was need for the nation to have a functional energy regulatory body.Iludare said that energy could only be made available at an appropriate price which must be affordable.

“While the industry needs liberalisation and restructuring to make energy available, it must be regulated at the end‐users market to ensure affordability.

“An unregulated utility market can be disastrous to a national economy.

“There must be a functioning regulatory agency to guaranteed equitable pricing of energy to end‐users and distributors,” he said. Iludare said that sustainable energy access required massive investment in human capacity to manage the industry, its regulatory institutions and agencies effectively.

He said the association was ready to partner with the government to achieve its goal on energy access.Prof. Adeola Adenikinju, President of NAEE, said “if we can get the energy access right to our people, we can move the economic forward.”

Adenikinju called on the government to explore the potential in the universities to boost the energy access, stressing that the cost of making use of students would be cheaper.

Source

Telegraphng