PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari reassured Nigerians of the government’s commitment to resolving the power sector challenges in partnership with the German company, Siemens.
The Premium Times newspaper quoted Buhari, during a National Independence Day’s broadcast on Tuesday, stating that the federal government is resolute in reforming the power sector.
The federal government signed an agreement with Siemens in July for the implementation of the Nigeria Electrification Roadmap.
The goal of the Roadmap is to resolve existing challenges in the power sector and expand the capacity for the future power needs of the country.
At present, the country’s power system is suffering from an imbalance between power generation and end-user consumption.
Despite approximately 13,000MW of power generation capacity in the country, only an average of 3,400MW reliably reaches consumers.
The inadequate power supply results in regular blackouts and has stunted Nigeria’s economic development.
The President assured that the new plan ‘will provide end-to-end electrification solutions that will resolve our transmission and distribution challenges.’
He also said the plan includes new initiatives to address the problems of energy theft, billing and tariff collection, which contribute to the acute liquidity crisis in the electricity sector.
Buhari revealed that: ‘The programme will also look to localise the development and assembly of smart meters as well as the operations and maintenance capabilities of transmission and distribution infrastructure.
‘I am pleased with the improved inter-agency collaboration between the Ministry of Power and the regulators in the banking and power sectors to ensure that electricity sales, billings and collections are automated and become cashless.’
In conclusion, he said: ‘These initiatives are important to ensure that the technical and collection losses in the sector are substantially reduced. I remain confident that Nigerians will have affordable and uninterrupted electricity supply in the not too distant future.’