Minister Seeks UN Financial Support for Power Sector

Minister of State, Power, Mr. Goddy Jedy-Agba has called on the United Nations (UN) to make additional financial support available to intervene in the power sector.

The minister made the call recently when he paid the UN Deputy Secretary General, Mrs. Amina Mohammed, a courtesy visit in New York, United States.

Jedy-Agba had traveled last week with a delegation comprising the Managing Director /Chief Executive Officer of Rural Electrification Agency, (REA), Mr. Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, as part of Nigeria’s delegation to the ongoing 76st sessions of the United Nations General Assembly.

While commending Mohammed for the role she has played in several UN interventions in the country, the minister, however, appealed for the organisation’s continued support to Nigeria.

The minister reiterated that one of the major challenges facing the country’s power sector was funding, thus appealing to the UN to vote more funds for Nigeria to develop the sector.

“Once again I want to congratulate and commend you for all you’ve been doing since your appointment especially for your dear country, Nigeria. You have really made the country proud and we’re happy we’ve a good ambassador like you out here.”

Our power challenges are not new to you because you have been part of the system and have been working with relevant authorities to address them. But permit me to add to what you already know about the issue that, funding is our major issue. We want to appeal to you and UN to please, support our country with more funds. Electricity is the biggest driver of the economy. We believe that if we fix our power sector, every sector of economy will take shape. Investors will troop in, our GDP will grow and our teeming youths will be gainfully employed, “. he said.

While maintaining that if Nigeria’s power sector is fixed, the power outage in Africa as a whole would be largely addressed, he, however, added that,” the government of President Muhammadu Buhari is investing massively in renewable energy because we believe that’s the future.

“In the past two years, the government has completed several projects in the renewable energy sector while several others are at different stages of completion. The President has directed us to focus more on rural areas because we need to give the lives of those who reside in rural areas a meaning. We need to help their small and medium scale businesses grow,” he stated.

Responding, Mohammed thanked the minister and his team visit and pledged to continue to do her best for the country and world at large.