President Muhammadu Buhari
• US sets apart $75m credit guarantee for clean energy in Africa
Chineme Okafor in Abuja
President Muhammadu Buhari has said he wants to see quick and effective solutions to the two major challenges affecting Nigeria’s electricity industry, vis-à-vis, strengthening of the transmission network and containment of assets vandalism.
Buhari, THISDAY learnt Thursday in Abuja, had at his first meeting with heads and top officials of key government agencies in the power sector, directed, through the Ministry of Power, that more efforts be channelled into stabilising the country’s transmission network and cutting down the frequency of vandalism of critical assets in the sector.
He said this was necessary to grow the confidence of investors in the sector, as well as provide more electricity to Nigerians.
The president last Wednesday met with officials in the sector, which included the permanent secretary in the ministry, Godknows Igali; Managing Director of the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET), Rumundaka Wonodi; Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi and Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), James Olotu.
Also at the meeting were the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency of Nigeria (REAN), Kenneth Achugbu, Managing Director of the Market Operator/System Operator of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ngozi Osunhor, Managing Director of the Nigeria Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), Peter Ewesor, and Managing Director of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN), Reuben Okeke, among others.
A top sector official who was part of the meeting spoke to THISDAY on the outcome of the meeting.
He explained that the president had after the presentations that were made to him and Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo, stated the need for the sector to guarantee investors some good level of confidence in the country’s privatised electricity market by nipping on the board these key challenges as soon as possible.
“The president really did not say much but he was firm on the need for us to fast track our work and also work hard on keeping vandalism at bay,” the official said, opting not to be quoted.
He added that: “He also wants us to focus on managing transmission projects so that they can be completed on time as well as faster time for managing everything so that investors will be comfortable. He said that these are areas he will like to see more work on.”
These assertions were however buttressed by Igali who at a separate meeting told the audience that the Wednesday meeting with Buhari went well and even though he spoke sparingly, he indicated that the sector was not doing badly but needs quick solutions to its post-privatisation challenges.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) I had the privilege to present to him, and the rest of us from the sector and he said yes you are trying, but go and work harder. And we are now going to work harder to make sure that Nigerians get much electric power, reliable, as soon as possible,” Igali said.
Meanwhile, Nigeria and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa have been given an opportunity to access a $75 million credit guarantee, (about N14.9 billion) from the United States ‘Power Africa’ initiative to boost their efforts at developing renewable energy projects.
It is understood that the fund is a risk management endowment that guarantees the stability and growth of emerging renewable energy investments for private and public firms in the interim especially on coal, solar, wind and biomass power generation projects sited in the ‘Power Africa’ participating countries.
The country representative of ‘Power Africa’ in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Matthew Barton disclosed this at a workshop in Abuja to boost the capacity of NEMSA to inspect renewable energy projects and materials.
Barton stated that the training was sponsored by President Barack Obama’s ‘Power Africa’ initiative through the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project (REEEP) in Nigeria to boost the capacity of NEMSA’s technical workforce to ensure that acceptable standards are adopted in citing projects in Nigeria’s renewable energy market.
While urging Nigeria to improve her investments in clean energy sources like solar, Barton said: “In addition to the partnership of ‘Power Africa’ on renewable energy, it has created a $75 million credit guarantee for renewable projects in sub-Saharan Africa.
“Last week, the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) fund beneficiaries from the technical assistance for the project received N50 million about $300,000 from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) MSME Fund with support from Ecobank for delivering free, safe and affordable energy to more than one million low income small businesses.”
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