The Minister of Power Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has attributed the non-improvement of electricity in the country to obsolete power distribution equipment handed over to private investors after the privatization of the sector. The Minister stated this on Wednesday while addressing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
He explained that for power to significantly improve in the country, the obsolete equipment must be upgraded to enable them to distribute all generated power by the Generation Companies (GENCOs). He lamented that recently, a total of 9,000 megawatts of electricity was rejected by the Distribution Companies (DISCOs) because of the aforementioned challenge.
“The project requires the construction of four dams, one of them is about 150 meters in height, the immediate two are 70 meters in height and the smallest of them is 50 meters in height. It also includes 700 kilometres of the transmission line. It will be in Taraba state in the area called Gembu, and it will unleash the potential that has been reported about Mambila, including agriculture, tourism and energy.
“You will recall that sometimes last year, the Chinese government held a summit in South Africa, essentially what that was about was supporting and partnering with African government to do their infrastructure and also funding the Agurua projects, so this was one of the projects of infrastructure that was submitted there and I think it also had the rail component.
“The money is coming from the Chinese government through their Exim bank, so it is an export funding support for them and an import funding for us. Eighty-five percent is supposed to be financed by them and 15 per cent is our own counterpart funding.
“The award now triggers contract negotiations for the financing side and after that are concluded the projects can now start.”
