Power generation stable at 3000MW for days – Fashola

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has said power generation has been stable at over 3,000 megawatts (MW) for days due to decisions taken at the monthly power sector meetings.

In a statement by Hakeem Bello, his spokesman, the minister said the task of power supply would be greatly enhanced if the government and the suppliers knew the number of people that needed power so that there would be proper planning for generation and supply.

He said in spite of the gas outages, electricity supply in the country has been consistent at over 3,000mw daily. He called for the audit of households, the occupants and the quantity of power consumption as that would help the government to plan a comprehensive service delivery across the country.

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He added that “The distribution is now in the hands of companies. All of the work that the defunct National Electricity Power Authority (NEPA) used to do distributing power is now in the hands of 11 companies. All of the work that NEPA used to do generating power is now in the hands of six companies.”

The minister further explained, “Now, there is an agency called NERC (Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission) created by law made by people you and I elected. That is the regulator of the power sector now, in getting licenses issued and so on and so forth and a statutory company called NBET (Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc). So, all of these institutions are taking positions and evolving.”

The Minister also described the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to merge the Ministries of Power, Works, and Housing which he manages as a single entity as a calculated measure to save the costs associated with running them independently.

Fashola, who was speaking at a ‘Town Hall Meeting and Policy Dialogue for Good Governance’ organised by the Alumni Association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (AANI), also noted that he was equal to the task of running the ministries and comfortable with the merger decision of Buhari.