Governor Olusegun Mimiko

By James Sowole

Governor Olusegun Mimiko Monday restated his administration’s preparedness to partner private investors and international agencies to boost power supply for its industrialisation drive.

Mimiko, who said this in Akure, while declaring open a capacity building workshop with the theme “Training on Diffusion of Turbine Technology for Small Hydro Power (SHP) Development in West Africa; said Nigeria is blessed with vast water bodies to aid hydro-power supply.

He noted that his administration was devising means of generating power to grow businesses in the areas that are far away from the gas line which is currently under execution by his administration.

The governor disclosed that the state government established a SHP committee two years ago in a tripartite relationship involving the state government, Bank of Industry (BoI) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) regional centre with the intention to make power available for industrial cluster, cottage industries and SME’s across the state.

He added that efforts were being intensified by the state government’s committee in collaboration with the BoI towards establishing SHP plants to power Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) having identified viable water bodies in the state.

“We appreciate the fact that our Independent Power Project (IPP) initiative is not enough at this point, given its present capacity and have come to embrace the need for power generation for businesses in communities too far from the gas line through small hydro power projects that will take advantage of available water resources in the state,” he stated.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the workshop and Acting Director of the Engineering Materials Development Institute (EMDI), Akure, Dr. Olugbenga Olusunle, had described SHP as the solution to the increasing demand for rural electrification in Africa.