The Federal Government on Tuesday said it was doing everything possible to increase the nation’s power generation level by 2,000 megawatts from the current 7,000mw to 9,000 megawatts between now and the end of the year.
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, gave this hint when he appeared on a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum in Abuja.
According to him, the government will also embark on 90 power transmission projects nationwide as a strategic option of enhancing the country’s power generation capacity.
The minister explained: “By the end of this year, we are going to have an extra 2,000 megawatts of power to add to the 7,000 that is being generated. So we can say that when we came in 2015, two arms of power had been privatised – generation and distribution – living only transmission.
“Power generated by all the 13 or so Generating Companies was 4,000 megawatts; power distributed by all the DisCos (Distribution Companies) was 2,690; the transmission rate capacity was 5,000 megawatts.
“Three and a half years later, that is today, we generate 7,000 megawatts, (up) from 4,000 megawatts, which means on the average, we will be adding 1,000 megawatts every year.
“This didn’t come by accident; it came because we were determined to ensure that we improve power generation, which made it possible for our transmission to go from 4,000 to 7,000 megawatts”, he stressed.
The minister explained further that the government embarked also on a Transmission Expansion and Rehabilitation Programme, which made it possible for the (rate of) transmission to increase from 4,000 to 7,000.
Mohammed enthused: “So we can say that when it comes to power no government has done what we have done in three and half years.’’
