New Telegraph

‘Nigeria has capacity to deepen energy sources’

Nigeria does not need to sell electricity to four neighbouring countries in West Africa to show how well the country has developed its energy sector, the Coordinator, Coalition for Affordable and Regular Energy (CARE), Comrade Chinedu Bosah, has said.

 

The countries are Niger, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso. He said the country had the capacity to develop its energy sector, by using various sources to produce energy for its growth and other countries around it. He listed the sources to include hydro, gas, wind and solar, describing their potential as huge enough to grow the sector and the economy in particular.

 

Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, Bosah said the issue of selling unused electricity to four neighbouring countries was not the problem, adding that how to develop the sector and run it in a democratic manner and make it more transparent remain the problems confronting the operators and the regulators respectively.

 

He said: “If the sector is run democratically in such a manner that exploitative tendencies of its workers are buried, harnessing the country’s potentials to produce electricity that would be enough for more than 200 million citizens, which Nigeria boasts of as its population would not be a challenge, ditto selling electricity to other countries.”

 

Provision of affordable and regular electricity, Bosah said, would be a problem, in view of the fact that the country is blessed with abundant energy and human resources. He said the country only needed to be more focused, committed and transparent to deliver quantum of energy required for its citizens and other countries around Nigeria.

 

He said Nigerians resident in the country and those in diaspora had the constitutional rights to enjoy cleaner and uninterrupted supply of electricity, urging government to provide them such amenities. He said the damning reports, which the World Bank gave concerning Nigeria’s deplorable power situations, were to some extent right, when one considers the fact that Nigeria has failed in major aspects of life.

 

He said that most Nigerians were living in darkness, as they barely access lights for their domestic needs. He said Nigerians were unable to properly access electricity and that the development made it possible for World Bank to describe the country that it is having one of the poorest access to power.

 

On tarrifs, he said the sector was charging one of the highest tarrifs now, arguing that the regulator should have segmented the users of electricity in Nigeria and therefore impose tarrifs on the basis of the classes, which people belong to. Recall that Nigeria planned to sell 2000 megawatts (Mw) of unused electricity produced by generation companies in the country.

 

The deal would be executed through $570 million North Core Power Transmission Line. Months after officials of North Core Power Transmission Company and other stakeholders met to discuss the issue of selling stranded electricity to four countries in the West African sub-region, the deal is yet to materialise

Read Previous

Adesina’s kuli-kuli for the army

Read Next

NNLG promises to boost natural gas usage

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *