Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce Industry Mines and Agriculture has urged experts to develop regulatory guidelines that would enable government to give room for more private investments in the power sector.
President of PHCCIMA, Mike Elechi at the 2022 Power-to-Power Summit in Port Harcourt, also urged experts to examine existing energy technologies that can be modified and made more user-friendly, for local application and maintenance.
Elechi charged investors to look at local manufacture or assembly of relevant energy appliances and tools as a business.
According to him, alternative sources of power that are environmentally friendly and have a significantly reduced carbon footprint; possibly small and medium scale energy solutions that can be embedded to provide uninterrupted power to a circumscribed community; should be explored as a business venture.
“Consequently, I hereby call upon government at the state and federal level to consider legislation and guidelines which allow for more entry into the energy supply sector.
“Also to improve the enabling operational environment that will encourage aggregation of existing players, to provide power to businesses and communities.
“Finally it goes without saying that our economy will benefit tremendously from power improvement and growth. This will positively affect economic growth, GDP, productivity, employment and will have a dramatic effect on the current security situation in our country as people are gainfully engaged.”
For his part, the President of the National Associations of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, John Udeagbala, said alternative and renewable energy was urgently needed to help businesses in the interim.
Udeagbala said NACCIMA was strongly committed to solving power problems as pressure group and leader of the organized private sector.
In his goodwill message, the Rwandan High Commissioner in Nigeria, Stanislas Kamanzi, who expressed excitement over the summit, said power was imperative to support production and economic growth.
“Power is needed to support production and economic growth. I know what power means to Nigerians, having stayed here for some time.”
Also, Rivers State Deputy Governor, Ipalibo Harry-Banigo, represented by the permanent secretary, Ministry of Power, Lawson Ikuru, regretted that there was high level og corruption in power sector management over the years and urged the summit to proffer solutions that can re-jig the system.
Similarly, the chairman of GGI Group Ltd, Innocent Akuvue, in his remarks said there was urgent need to tackle electricity because it has become a talked about problem holding down development.
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