The founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation and chairman of the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu, has disclosed that General Electric (GE) threatened to pull out of the TransAfam Power Plant over gas shortage to test the plant.
Elumelu disclosed this while delivering his remark at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) annual General Conference in Abuja on Sunday.
TransAfam Power Limited is a subsidiary of Transcorp Group, the core investor in the 966MW Afam Power Plc. and Afam three-fast Power, jointly referred to as the Afam Generation Company (GenCo).
He said, “Is it not ironic that a country with abundant gas resources cannot optimally operate its power plants due to lack of gas?
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“The TransAfam Power Plant that belongs to Transcorp Group has an installed capacity of 1000 megawatts. The Federal Government of Nigeria made a significant investment to acquire 240 megawatts of fast power turbines from General Electric (GE).
“For context, 240 megawatts of electricity can power about one million homes in Nigeria.
“Yet GE has threatened to pull out of the project, because our nation – with some of the largest gas reserves globally, could not provide 65mm scuffs of gas needed for the comprehensive testing of the installed fast power plant.”
The entrepreneur said the nation has idle gas fields and there is so much private capital to make the needed investments for gas production.
He also called on the government to invest in our social infrastructure, civil society, courts of law and administrators of justice, adding that no country and no entrepreneur can truly thrive without the rule of law, peace, certainty and fairness for all – for our young, old, women and men, our future.
