Adelabu: Despite Huge Investment in Power Sector, Only 2GW Added in 40 Years

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu at the weekend disclosed that Nigeria was only able to add 2GW (2,000mw) of power to the national grid since 1984, a period of 40 years.

Adelabu who spoke when he appeared on Television Continental (TVC), also reiterated the Bola Tinubu-led administration’s plan to raise the country’s grid electricity to 6,000mw by the end of 2024 from the current circa 5,000mw.

In contrast, THISDAY checks revealed that in just three years, from December 2015 to December 2018, a total of 28,229 mw was added to the national electricity grid by Egypt.

This resulted in a total installed capacity of 55gw by the country, including both conventional and renewable energy sources, according to the International Trade Administration (ITA).

But the minister stressed that it was shameful that Nigeria, a country of over 200 million persons is currently hooked on to about 5,000mw of power supply on a daily basis.

Noting that there had been some improvement, Adelabu stated that industrialised countries like South Korea already conquered the problem of power supply, reason that such global companies like LG, Hyundai and others were able to spring up from that part of the world.

A recent report quoted by Dataphyte noted that Nigeria spent N1.7 trillion on power between 2018 and 2020. Another report added that over $7.5 billion was spent on transmission alone under Buhari. Despite, these investments, the power sector problem has persisted.

It explained that the amounts mentioned did not include N1.5 trillion lent by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to Generation Companies (Gencos) and Distribution Companies (Discos) as well as recurrent budgets over the years.

“We are excited, we are happy, and we are inspired that our people have acknowledged this improvement in parts of the country in the past few months, which show the results of the intentional activities of the federal ministry of power, our agencies, and the operators in the power sector value chain.

“At the same time, we, as Nigerians, do not settle for crumbs. We should be quite ambitious in our plan. As I said, 5,000mw of power for over 200 million people is not yet satisfactory. That is not where we are going. It is a far cry from our target.

“South Korea is a highly industrialised nation. They have a population of 48 or 49 million people. Today, they generate 130,000mw of power. So the fact that we have the companies like Hyundai, LG and so on means that they were able to grow these industries from scratch. They were small shops in the 60s,” the minister stated.