Tobias Sylvester
The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman has claimed that the entire country is currently enjoying between 18 to 24 hours of power supply everyday.
Mamman, who stated this during a recent interview with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), maintained that the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had improved the infrastructure in the power system.
According to him, some power plants had been completed by the current administration, adding that power supply would further improve with the coming of Siemens AG, a German company into the system. He said:
“The President has come out with Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) to ensure that all infrastructures are improved. So, many substations are now in place across the country. We have improved the 330 KVA which is the highest voltage in the country.
“We have also improved the 132 substations. Kashimbilla has been completed which is 40mw. We have reached up to 70 per cent of Zungeru in Niger. One of the biggest projects, the Mambilla, which has been lingering for over 40 years, has commenced.
“We have finished the feasibility studies, the land and area survey and waiting for contractors to mobilise to site. We have improved our services. Before this government, they gave light for less than 10 hours a day, but today I can tell you that we give light from 18 to 24 hours in a day.”
The minister said that the government was trying to make electricity supply constant and affordable and emphasised that the country would reach energy generation of up to 112, 000mw per hour for the first time.
“Before now, we had less than 3,000mw of capacity generation but today we can generate up to 5,500mw capacity although we cannot transmit all due to some constraints,” he added.
Mamman noted that the Siemens would align the entire sector to ensure that generation, transmission and distribution are properly coordinated.
KanyiDaily had reported last year that President Buhari signed a partnership agreement with German Government and Siemens AG to upgrade Nigeria’s power transmission and distribution infrastructure.
The new deal with Siemens AG will see Nigeria generating 7,000 megawatts by 2021 and 11,000 megawatts by 2023.
