Over 40% of Nigerians now enjoy 20hrs electricity daily –FG

The federal government has said over 40 per cent of consumers of electricity in Nigeria now enjoy 20 hours of stable power supply daily.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, disclosed this during a review of the achievements of the ministry in the last one year as part of arrangements preparatory to the Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day celebrations.

In a statement on Sunday, Adelabu noted that the achievements recorded by his ministry were not by accident, attributing the progress made to the efforts being put in place by the ministry with the support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He said, “The major achievement is the fact that today we generate over 5,500 megawatts of power, we transmit and distribute it, and over 40% of customers today enjoy over 20 hours of regular power supply across the nation.

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“You can see that there is a significant improvement between when we came in and now, which we intend to improve further.”

He stated that the initiatives being rolled out by the power ministry were in line with President Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda, adding that supply of stable power to Nigerians was one of the key promises made by the President during his campaigns.

The minister added that Nigeria must achieve stability in electricity supply for economic growth and industrial development.

“This is why you see great economies like Korea, China, Europe, and North America industrialised today. Their stability in electricity supply has been instrumental to their economic growth and industrial development.

“That is why we say that we must achieve this for Nigeria as a country. We need to achieve the requisite economic growth and industrial development.”

Further highlighting the achievements of the ministry, Adelabu added, “Within a year, we completed the pilot phase of this project, which involved importing 10 power transformers and 10 power mobile substations. They have arrived; we have installed them, and we have commissioned them.

“Therefore, the electricity stability that we enjoy today is not by accident. It’s because of all these transformers and mobile substations that we commissioned and installed.

“There is the issue of the meter gap that we have. We all know that out of almost 13 million customers that we have in the industry, over 7 million customers are still without meters and are on estimated billing.

“We said this is not the way to go. We must correct this, which is why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu set up the Presidential Metering Initiative, which has the mandate of installing over 10 million meters within the next five years, at least 2 million meters on a yearly basis.

“We are making progress on this. The funds are being provided, and we will soon go into the acquisition of these meters. This would reduce the meter gap.”