AfDB Says Nigerians Spend $14bn on Generators Annually

• AfDB Says Nigerians Spend $14bn on Generators Annually

The Director, African Development Bank (AfDB), Ebrima Faal, has said Nigerians spent around $14 billion on generators and fuel annually.

Faal, who spoke at a stakeholders’ forum in Abuja, said this has a negative effect on the power sector as the amount could have been used to improve the sector.

He added that AfDB has approved $210 million to improve transmission projects and enhance the supply of electricity in Nigeria.

Supporting Faal’s position Mr Muda Yusuf, the Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Mr Faal was right, that the huge amount of money being spent on alternative power by both private and public sector operators could have been used to improve the power sector.

Yusuf said: “The costs incurred to provide alternative sources of power are inevitable, if industrialists are to remain in business in Nigeria. This, perhaps, is the biggest single factor impeding the growth of industrialisation. The issue has made our industries very uncompetitive in recent times. That is one of the reasons our industries cannot produce for export unlike their counterparts abroad.

“Also, our industries contribute less than 10 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”

Yusuf added that the country is in a pathetic state as it has failed to fix her power sector 59 years after independence.