Fashola Insists Nigerians Now Enjoy More Electricity

. FG’s 2018 supply statistics contradicts claims
Chineme Okafor in Abuja

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, recently disclosed that Nigerians now get more volumes of electricity supplied to their homes and offices, insisting that at the moment, most commercial and residential consumers of electricity have packed up their alternative power supply sources for grid electricity, which he claimed has improved tremendously.

However, available supply statistics from the Advisory Power Team in the Office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has contradicted the minister’s claims as power generation averaged only 3,847.8 megawatts in the first 104 days of 2018.

But speaking during the April 2018 edition of the monthly power sector operators meeting in Umuahia, Abia State, the minister claimed Nigerians now spend less money to procure alternative power.
“We are on a journey to a destination of promise and eventual prosperity and I use this occasion to salute the efforts and contributions of all those who have brought us this far.

Even if those who were most vocal in condemnation when the situation appeared very dire are now uttering some muted acknowledgment that it has improved, we must continue to draw inspiration from well-meaning and right thinking Nigerians who were gracious enough to publicly acknowledge that: they are saving some money from diesel they used to spend for generators; they are running their generators for fewer hours; and they are getting comparably more power than before,” Fashola said.

“It is because of those gracious and well-meaning and right thinking Nigerians that we must dig deeper, work harder and be more determined to improve service delivery,” he added.
Available supply statistics from the Advisory Power Team in the Office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has contradicted the minister’s claims as only measured growth was recorded in the first 104 days of 2018.

The statistics showed that from January 1 to April 14, the country produced a total of 400,171 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which represented an average daily generation and supply of 3,847.8MW.

Within the period as well, it was unable to generate 261,944MW of power due to a combination of gas, water, transmission and distributions constraints, bringing its average daily power loss to 2,518.7MW.

As regards the financial revenue it could not get from its failings within the period, the government’s statistics indicated that for 104 days, a total of N125.774 billion was not gained by the sector, representing an average daily financial loss of N1.209 billion.
The statistics also showed that the sector recorded a partial system collapse on April 12, but did not give further details on this.

Additionally, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in February disclosed that the amount of electricity required by its members to carry out their respective manufacturing operations every day had risen to 14,882MW, most of which it added were self-generated.

MAN also said despite the huge power consumption levels of its members, it found it uneconomical that up to 2000MW of the power that electricity generation companies (Gencos) can generate are stranded because electricity distribution companies (Discos) are unable to evacuate them to points of need.

To this end, it said it would be looking up to the new eligible customers’ regulation that was recently introduced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), to at least cut down its expenses on self-generation of power.