Oscarline Onwuemenyi
02 November 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), Marilyn Amobi, has said there is no way Nigeria can achieve the 20,000 megawatts power generation target it set for itself by 2020.
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had earlier this year said it would boost its infrastructure to have the capacity to evacuate 20,000 megawatts of electricity by 2020.
But Amobi, who was responding to questions from members of the House of Representatives Committee on Power during an oversight visit in Abuja yesterday, said that is not possible.
“From my perspective, we have no business talking about 20,000 megawatts for 2020. It’s clear we can’t achieve that by 2020,” she said.
When chairman of the committee, Rep Daniel Asuquo (PDP, C/River) asked further if Nigeria has the capacity to achieve that, Amobi said “no.”
“A lot of talk shows are going on in this country in form of workshops on that. There will not be any 20,000 megawatts in 2020. We can’t make that happen. There’s no way for that,” she insisted.
Asked if the country could also make nuclear and wind energy possible, the Amobi who assumed office of MD/CEO of NBET in Augusts, said it was also a mirage.
“We cannot run nuclear in Nigeria, and the question of wind energy, forget it. It’s just a story. We cannot run all that in Nigeria. It’s just a wish list,” she said.
But when the lawmakers inquired to know what could make Nigeria not to achieve that, the MD said the country was not ready for that both financially and otherwise.
The lawmakers also raised eyebrow on the way the organization engaged 14 companies under its Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), saying it appeared there was no proper guideline for the engagement.
“If there was no proper guideline, the process of acquiring those 14 companies was null and void. I can assure you if we leave here with that, there’ll be an investigation on this. If the standard is not in line with global best practices, of course, there will be a lot of questions. Whoever that directed such a thing will appear before us,” Asuquo said.
However, Amobi said there was an in-house guideline produced in 2011 and that it met the set standard at the time, but that it would not be used “going forward.”
