10 January 2014, Abuja -The Federal Government, yesterday, said that there was no going back on its promise to ensure improved power supply across the country by June this year.
The minister, however, asked the private sector to tap into the opportunity provided by the new policy of Public Private Partnership, PPP, by partnering with government on infrastructural development in all sectors of the economy.
According to him, the Federal Government’s commitment at delivering power supply to Nigerians was not in doubt, even as his ministry would stop at nothing in ensuring that President Goodluck Jonathan’s ultimate goal of uninterrupted power supply was achieved in the nearest future.
“My ministry is forging ahead; we have our challenges and we are doing everything possible to overcome those challenges. I believe that over the Christmas, apart from Lagos, because of very unique problems, most parts of the country got better power supply. Kaduna had excellent power supply, Abuja and many places had 23-24 hours supply and so many other cities had the same thing.”
“There are places we have challenges but we are doing everything possible to curb those challenges, so that we can deliver more power to Nigerians.
“We are not saying constant power supply by June this year that is an error. We are saying there will be improved power supply. If you were getting eight hours and you now get 10 hours or 12 it is improved; if you were getting 16 hours and you get 18 hours and 22, it is an improvement.
That is what we are shouting for. But the ultimate uninterrupted power supply, which is Mr. President’s goal has to come much later,’’ he added.
On how far Nigeria has harnessed the benefit of PPP, the minister said, “it is something that can open the way for infrastructure development in the country because there is no way the government can raise all the funds needed for infrastructural development alone.’’
Also speaking at the event, the former Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC and Director, Centre for Infrastructure Policy Regulation and Advancement, CIPRA, Mr Ernest Ndukwe, attributed the problem to lack of capacity within government institutions.
“What is the biggest challenge today is that we don’t have enough capacity within government to structure PPPs properly. That is why we set up CIPRA, to help in an academic environment to intervene in those areas because we noticed that that is the main problem bedevilling the industry,” he added.
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