Nigeria Needs Electricity to Drive Economic Growth, Industrialisation, Says Minister

Peter Uzoho

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, has described the power sector as the energy needed by Nigeria for economic growth and industrial development. 

Adelabu made this assertion at the weekend while addressing a delegation of the Nigeria Society of Engineers (NSE) led by the President of the association, Tasiu Sa’ad Gidari-Wudil, to the ministry in Abuja.

The minister, who emphasised the need to give the power sector appropriate focus and attention, said there is no transformed economy throughout the world that did not put power as a priority.

He stated one of the major crises Nigeria experience is not being able to produce what is consumed, thereby being dependent on other parts of the world as a consuming economy.

“A large percentage of what we consume as a nation is imported and any country desirous of transformation should eschew such scenario”.

While charging the NSE to throw its weight into the power sector in order to achieve its desired goal, Adelabu said one of the major challenges the country has in moving forward stems from the inability to synergise.

“Nigeria needs an abundance of power supply and the challenge doesn’t lie on any other institution other than the Nigerian Society of Engineers,” he said.

The minister stated that factors like leadership, commitment, focus, and passion, are instrumental to achieving the desired success in the power sector, while gaps in mobility, infrastructure, and inability to build roads and proper railways despite funding from developmental partners remain challenging.

Speaking further, the minister said as part of Tinubu’s committed plan to change the lives of Nigerians, implementation of the local content in government contracts has become imperative.

“As a protagonist of local content, there must be recognition of the local meter manufacturers in Nigeria to encourage development and sustainability.”

He revealed the consumers are the revenue determinants, thus transmission and distribution capacity should be in excess as power generated and does not get to the doorstep of the consumers is a fruitless effort. 

“Nigeria is a nation with a population of over 220 million, generating only 4,000 megawatts, this calls for adequate collaboration as new confidence is being reposed in this new administration for sustainable and adequate power supply.

“There have been a series of Bilateral Stakeholders’ consultations prior to a planned town hall meeting of all stakeholders in which the NSE will be majorly involved”, he explained.

Earlier, Gidari-Wudil said the society will put all expertise and operational arsenal at its disposal to help the ministry achieve its mandate.

The NSE president, who enumerated recent development in the society noted the core mandate of NSE is to make meaningful contributions to the development and advancement of technology through collaboration and linkages.

He said the quest for expanding the views and vision of the society across international boundaries, with the view of harnessing vital international resources, knowledge sharing and transfer, led to the council of NSE approval of five international diaspora branches of the Society in Houston, London, Manchester, Glasgow and the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia.

“The incoming President of the World Society of Engineers is a top member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers”, he added.

Outlining some critical expectations of the organisation, he said power is the bedrock of manufacturing and for Nigeria to survive as a country, there is a need to support local manufacturers otherwise Nigeria will continue to be a consumer nation.

“Part of this administration’s mandate is for us to be more of a producing nation”, he said.