Egbin Power Station Targets 5,000MW in Five Years

Ejiofor Alike
The Chairman of Egbin Power Plc, Mr. Kola Adesina has restated the commitment of the board of the company to expand the plant’s generating capacity from 1,320 megawatts to 5, 000MW in the next five years.

Adesina said in a statement that better regulation should drive African power sector transformation
According to him, power sector regulatory authorities across Africa should provide the guidance and expertise that is so crucial to enhancing economic growth and development across the continent.

Adesina said the regulatory environment in the sector in Africa needs to be tweaked to integrate cross border collaboration, forward looking policies and cooperation between the public and private sectors to meet the huge power demand on the continent.

“We need our regulators to seek avenues for collaboration across the regions to drive regional and global financial support, policy integration, infrastructure upgrades and human capital development. We need that synergy between policy and regulation to stimulate investments and expansion that will ultimately lead to sustainable power supply,” he said.

“The government through its agencies and regulation bodies should be committed to face the critical parameters involving monetary policies on interest rates on loans, exchange rate and inflation rate. These could be pegged at a certain levels to allow the power sector bring in the required infrastructure,” Adesina added.

According to him, an important part of the regulators’ role would be to ensure that customers receive the best possible service.

He added that regulators will eventually need to allow the market find it’s equilibrium in terms of costs and pricing, adding however that a free market may not be entirely “practicable” given the various socio-economic dynamics across the continent.

He concluded by reiterating the importance of public-private partnerships to the advancement of the sector.
“The government alone cannot provide these services neither could it have overhauled an entire sector on its own. But it is crucial that the government begins to address all the structural deficits that impede the sector if the privatisation road map is to bring immense benefits to the continent,” he said.