The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has said the major achievement of the ministry under his administration is the increase in power generation to over 5,500 megawatts.
The minister, who spoke during a review of the ministry’s activities in the last one year, said more than 40% of Nigerians are now enjoying at least 20 hours of power supply.
Adelabu described the power supply before his resumption as epileptic, adding that Nigerians were unable to enjoy more than 15 hours of power supply per day.
He said, “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.
“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% 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.”
Furthermore, Minister Adelabu highlighted some challenges faced by the ministry, particularly the issue of the meter gap in the country.
He revealed that out of 13 million customers, over 7 million are without meters.
The minister emphasised the need to address this issue.
However, he revealed that with President Tinubu’s Presidential Metering Initiative, the issue of the meter gap will be addressed.
Adelabu added, “There is the issue of the meter gap that we have. We all know that out of almost 13 million customers that we have in the industry, over 7 million customers are still without meters and are on estimated billing. We said this is not the way to go.
“We must correct this, which is why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu set up the Presidential Metering Initiative, which has the mandate of installing over 10 million meters within the next five years, at least 2 million meters every year. We are making progress on this. The funds are being provided, and we will soon go into the acquisition of these meters. This would reduce the meter gap.”
