Nigeria’s power generation will increase by 2,000MW in 2016 – Fashola

The minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola, says the power generation will increase this year by 2,000 megawatts.

This is contained in a statement sent to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja by Etore Thomas, an assistant director in the ministry.

According to the statement, Mr. Fashola made the statement while defending the ministry’s budget before the Senate Committee on Power and Mines.

It added that a lot had changed in the management of power in the country in recent times.

The statement said the distribution of power was no longer the government’s business, but had been taken over by private companies.

It stated that government privatised power generation with transmission aspect being managed by Manitoba International of Canada at present.

According to the statement, the 2016 budget focuses more on the transmission, completion of on-going projects, refurbishing power plants and tackling gas supply issues.

The statement said if all these were addressed, the expected projection would boost electricity generation in the country.

It said the ministry planned to take its role as a policy maker seriously while agencies would be tasked more on implementation and execution of government’s agenda for the industry.

The statement quoted the chairman of the committee, James Manager, as saying “the ministry should think out of the box if it wanted to achieve its goals in the sector”.

The statement added that Nigerians would reap from the sacrifices they incurred in increase in tariff by enjoying uninterrupted power supply.

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