Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, says more than 40 percent of Nigerian electricity consumers now enjoy over 20 hours of regular supply daily.
As part of the nation’s Independence Day celebrations, the milestone was unveiled during an assessment of the ministry’s accomplishments over the previous 12 months.
Adelabu credited the advancements in a statement released on Sunday to a number of “revolutionary measures” carried out with the backing of President Bola Tinubu’s team.
He said the ministry’s initiatives are aligned with the president’s renewed hope agenda, which aims to enhance industrialisation through consistent power supply.
He stressed the critical role of stable electricity in developed nations, linking it to economic success.
This explains the industrialization of today’s major economies, including Europe, North America, China, and Korea. Their industrial development and economic growth have benefited greatly from their stable electricity supply, the speaker stated.
For the sake of Nigeria as a nation, we therefore assert that we must succeed in this. We must accomplish the necessary industrial development and economic growth.
According to Adelabu, the ministry’s goal is to give institutions, companies, and homes access to dependable and reasonably priced electricity.
He claimed that by doing this, the nation will be able to attain the intended levels of industrial and economic growth.
The minister noted that the installed generation capacity has increased from 13,000 megawatts to over 14,000 megawatts, reflecting the progress made by the ministry since the administration’s inception.
He claimed that the construction of new hydroelectric power plants and upgrades to already-existing infrastructure had made this feasible.
Adelabu outlined several key reforms, including the signing of the new Electricity Act 2023, which decentralises power generation, allowing subnational governments to participate in the electricity market.
He said the liberalisation of the sector has paved the way for private sector to also participate in the electricity supply industry.
In the infrastructure space, the minister highlighted the successful commissioning of 10 power transformers and mobile substations under the presidential power initiative.
He also acknowledged ongoing efforts to close the metering gap, noting that over 7 million Nigerian households are still without meters.
The pilot phase of this project, which comprised importing ten power transformers and ten power mobile substations, was finished in less than a year. The minister declared, “They have arrived, we have installed them, and we have commissioned them.”
Consequently, it is no coincidence that we currently have stable electricity. 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 almThe reason for this is the numerous transformers and mobile substations that we installed and commissioned. meters and are on estimated billing.
This approach is not the best one, we said. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu established the Presidential Metering Initiative with the goal of installing over 10 million meters within the next five years, or at least 2 million meters annually, in order to address this.
“We are getting better at this. We are receiving the funding, and we will shortly begin the process of purchasing these meters. As a result, the meter gap would shrink.
