Over 40% of Nigerians now enjoy 20 hours of electricity — Power minister

The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, claimed yesterday that over 40 per cent of Nigerians now enjoy 20 hours of electricity supply daily.

The minister in a statement by his media aide, Bolaji Tunji, explained that the feat was achieved, following certain revolutionary measures taken by the government to ensure that Nigerians enjoyed a more stable and regular electricity supply.

The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, had in April this year, removed electricity subsidy for about two million customers in Band A, with an assurance of at least 20 hours of power supply daily.

Data from NERC for August showed that average power generation was 4,150 Megawatts for an estimated population of over 200 million people.

Adelabu said all these were achieved with the support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as part of his renewed hope agenda to galvanise the economy.

Adelabu, who reviewed his one year in office as part of activities to mark this year’s Independent Day celebration, said the increase in power supply was due to the radical and bold steps taken by the government.

“This feat is a result of many of the revolutionary measures being undertaken by the Power Minister, with the support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu”, he added.

According to him, the President has consistently advocated that Nigeria can be great and achieve breakthroughs in industrialization, through a stable and consistent power supply.

He said one of the major and significant achievements of his ministry within the last year was that “today, we are generating over 5,500 megawatts of power.”

He said the ministry was working to improve on this record by the end of the year, as power supply constitutes one of the campaign promises of President Tinubu.

Adelabu stressed the need for Nigerians to know that stable electricity in any economy could not be overemphasized for most developed nations.

“The first thing they got right was to achieve reliable, functional, and affordable electricity, especially for their industries, businesses, institutions, and households.

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

“That’s why we say that we must achieve this for Nigeria as a country. We need to achieve the requisite economic growth and industrial development. Our dear president, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, included this in the Renewed Hope Agenda as a major electoral policy for Nigerians.

‘’In his New Year speech on the 1st of January, 2024, he emphasized the need for the country to have stable, functional, and reliable electricity to drive other critical sectors. This is the only way we can achieve the required economic growth and industrial development. None of the critical sectors can function optimally without electricity stability and functionality.

“Therefore, our vision is to ensure that we provide households, businesses, and institutions (educational and health institutions as well as industries) with stable electricity supply. This will enable them to power their activities, improve their capacity, and create more jobs.

“In a country like South Korea, industrial giants like Samsung, Hyundai, and LG didn’t just become global giants overnight. They were supported by the government through the provision of stable and reliable electricity for their operations. This is the vision we have for Nigeria.

‘’At the end of the day, a large proportion of our population will be electrified, industries will enjoy stable electricity, and this will increase production and create employment for our people.
“This administration was inaugurated on May 29, 2023. However, ministers were appointed on August 21, 2023. We are just a bit over a year old in office.

“Upon resumption, we had an installed generation capacity of 13,000 megawatts, but we were only producing, transmitting, and distributing about 4,000 megawatts of power to the entire country.

“This was quite low and unacceptable given our population and level of economic activities. Therefore, we were determined to improve the situation.

“At that time, there was an epileptic supply. Almost all customers, both residential and commercial, could not be guaranteed 12-15 hours of supply. Additionally, the adoption of renewable energy was skeletal in terms of solar or wind sources of energy.

“Between then and now, which is about a year, there has been significant improvement. Today, our installed capacity is over 14,000 megawatts of power due to the addition of the newly commissioned Zungeru hydroelectric power plant and improved capacity of some of the existing power plants,” the minister said.

“Moreover, the major achievement is the fact that today we generate over 5,500 megawatts of power, we transmit and distribute it, and over 40 per cent of customers today enjoy over 20 hours of regular power supply across the nation. You can see that there is a significant improvement between when we came in and now, which we intend to improve further” the minister said.