President Bola Ahmed Tinubu yesterday said that despite the nation’s current rate of energy supply, his administration was poised to address all the obstacles against stable electricity supply in the country.
He said his administration would bring solutions to the multifarious challenges across the electric power sector value chain which would significantly relieve long standing problems of suppressed demand and improve the steadiness of peak supply for Nigerians, affirming that improved energy generation and distribution are imperatives for accelerated national growth.
President Tinubu spoke at the ground breaking ceremony of the new 350MW Gwagwalada Independent Thermal Power Plant (Phase 1) where he urged the NNPC and its partners to deliver the landmark project within the promised three years completion timeline, insisting that three years must be three years.
“Although the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) is currently characterised by huge supply-gap deficits owing to dilapidated power infrastructure and poor distributions networks, amongst others, this administration is poised to address every power value chain challenge that will significantly relieve the suppressed demand, enhance generation, and improve national peak growth & sustainability far above the hitherto abysmal and unacceptable 5,300MW for over 200 million Nigerians,” the president said.
In a statement by his spokesman, Ajuri, Ngelale, President Tinubu noted that a swift improvement in the stability and quantum of energy supply would enhance national economic development, which remains a cardinal priority of his administration.
“During my electioneering campaign, I made a commitment to Nigerians on providing stable electricity. This is to be achieved by ensuring that we use all available energy sources to boost power generation beyond the current installed capacity of 12,000 megawatts, strengthening the integrity of our transmission infrastructure and ensuring that all distribution bottlenecks are removed. We cannot form the productive and industrialised economy we need in order to conclusively tackle poverty, and create thousands of high paying manufacturing jobs for our teeming young people, whose creativity and talent we must harness for national development, without reliable electricity,” the president stated.
Tinubu affirmed that adequate energy, broadly and electricity specifically are to be treated as the topmost national economic imperatives if Nigeria must develop and maximise her human and natural resources, adding; “To accelerate our economic growth, we must work hard to remove every obstacle that has slowed down our progress. I have often said that electricity is the greatest human invention of the last 1,000 years.
“We cannot advance and join the rest of the developed world if we remain stuck with our current electricity supply situation and unable to supply the energy our country requires to power a doubling of the size of our Gross Domestic Product within the next decade.”
The president expressed excitement that the landmark project was commencing at the onset of his administration.
