Fashola: Poor Power Supply Not Reason Nigeria’s Isn’t Industralised

Chineme Okafor in Abuja

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has declared that the lack of adequate electricity in Nigeria cannot be responsible for the country’s slow-paced industrialisation, or drop in levels of her economic growth, adding that such claims by experts were not factual because the country currently has up to 2000 megawatts (MW) of redundant power that could go to its industries.

Fashola said this yesterday in Abuja when he met with civil society groups to explain the content and implications of the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) initiated by the federal government in conjunction with the World Bank, to revive Nigeria’s ailing power sector.
According to him, existing statistics in the power sector indicated that power generation companies (Gencos) have been able to grow their generation up to 7000MW, and the TCN equally able to transmit all of that, but the distribution companies (Discos) can take just about 5000MW, leaving a balance of 2000MW that industries in the country can take up but are yet to.

He also said that between 2013 and 2014, Nigeria’s economy steadily grew on a scale of seven per cent, adding that at that time, the country generated less power than it did today, yet her economy grew at that level.
Fashola, said the kind of conversation he expected from economic experts in the country were how to get the excess 2000MW to industries across board to drive down their costs of operations.
“We hear all our so called experts who say power is why the economy of Nigeria is not growing. That is not factual and it is not correct. At the time when we had less power in 2013 and 2014, the economy of this country was growing at seven per cent per annum,” said Fashola.

He further stated: “We had less power then than we have now but the economy was growing. So, that is not a honest statement to make. It is not a honest statement at all. So, that is not the reason. Power will clearly contribute to the growth but power is not the reason why the economy is not growing.
“I’ve also heard of the need for industrialisation (with) power and that’s true. But, there are nations who haven’t solved their power problems, who are industrialised faster than us, and who are solving it and industrialising at the same time. Today, we import things from India; all of India is not powered.”
Continuing, the minister said: “So, let us stop repeating the stories that we have been told and get more current information about what is happening. We know that the industries are not getting enough power, but the correct statement is not because there is no power. The reality is that we have 7,000MW and we are selling 5,000MW.
“So, the conversation we should be having is how to connect to the 2,000MW. That’s the conversation we should have instead of just repeating things that we hear without even measuring the accuracy and what has changed.”

Speaking on the financial troubles of the power sector and debts owed the market by agencies of the federal government, Fashola, explained that the Discos have been advised by the federal government to look to the States for the balance of debts owed them considering that it had verified what it owed them and got approval to pay them off.

“On liquidity issue and payment of debts, we have identified the debts that were owed by the federal government. We have verified them and the Federal Executive Council has approved it. We have told the Discos to go back to the state governments because the remaining debts are owed at state and local government levels. But, some measures have been taken to address them,” he noted.