Power sector in crisis, says minister

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu has stated the power sector is in crisis and the government is trying its best to bring normalcy to it.

Speaking during a press briefing yesterday in Abuja, the minister said the last three weeks had been difficult for the country and the sector with Nigerians contending with frequent power cuts.

While calling on Nigerians to exercise patience as the ministry is tackling the power crises from its root cause, he said the government is targeting to increase power generation to 6500 MegaWatts (MW) from the current 4500 (MW).

“We are doing everything possible to make sure the situation reverses in no time. There is a crisis and the crises must be arrested. What we asked from Nigerians is to exercise a little patience to retain their trust and confidence in us that we can do this. Very soon, you will start singing our praises. When they accuse us now, when there is no power, it is very understandable because their complaints are legitimate.”

Women’s Day: FCT women town planners celebrate with toilet renovation in schools

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The minister lamented the poor performance exhibited by electricity distributions companies, promising that sanctions would be meted out to underperforming DisCos.

He disclosed that the ministry is making plans to balkanise the coverage area of some of the DisCos to enable communities not served to be taken over by other companies.

He added that the government has launched schemes to accelerate meter acquisition by providing 2 million meters annually.

“We want to do this so that in four to five years, the metering gap will disappear or be significantly reduced. There is a Presidential Metering Initiative. We have a seed fund of N75bn to start working and we are going to add some debt injection from the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) to complement the seed fund. There is a possibility of increasing the seed fund to N100bn.”