22 July 2013, Abuja – Vice President Namadi Sambo has expressed dismay over what he called the inadequate funds coming from the Multi-Year-Tariff-Order, MYTO, and the inability to pay for gas.
Speaking at the State House in Abuja during the 29th meeting of the Board of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company of Nigeria, NDPHC, Sambo summoned Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, and other stakeholders to a meeting to hold this week.
The MYTO provides a 15-year tariff path for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
The vice president also frowned at the delay in completing the Gwagwalada sub-station, saying although the timetable for its commissioning has been drawn, he cannot take President Goodluck Jonathan to commission “the power project that would fail immediately after commissioning”.
Sambo commended the Ministry of Power for establishing the National Power Training Institute, NAPTIN, which he noted would train the much-needed manpower to operate power plants after privatisation.
The vice president, however, insisted that the institute be upgraded to attract the patronage of other companies within and outside Nigeria.
Power Minister Professor Chinedu Nebo, while making a presentation on the manpower requirement and the cost implication of running the NAPTIN, disclosed that the government has given N50 billion to the institute.
He said about 500 students would soon graduate from the institute and called for adequate funding, maintaining that the institute could bridge the wide gap in the electrical engineering programmes in the education sector.
– Isiaka Wakili, Daily Trust
