Accountability, Synergy Among Stakeholders key for Power Stability- Minister
The Minister of Power Engr. Sale Mamman has said the Nigerian power sector is being repositioned towards a holistic realignment for an effective delivery of electricity, saying that synergy and accountability are critical to sustaining the sector.
The Minister stated this during a virtual meeting with the African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday, set up to discuss the latest developments in the Nigerian Power Sector and to review ongoing engagements and explore future supports from the Bank to the various government’s policy initiatives targeted at achieving sector sustainability.
According to the Minister, ‘’the Power Sector is in the process of undergoing long term structural market reforms and has gone through the first phase of privatization, in the hope of unlocking investments and improving service delivery’’. This he added, was the case when this administration took the leadership of the country.
Unfortunately, this he said, has not delivered the benefits envisaged as the sector is struggling with a number of challenges namely: market inefficiency; infrastructure misalignment; coordination of issues; as well as contract ineffectiveness, which has led to the ‘’articulation of my Roadmap that specified 5 key areas of focus in order to take corrective steps and reposition the sector on to a path of sustained growth”. He noted that the central root issues responsible for the situation in the sector are: the infrastructural deficit, lack of coordination, and contract ineffectiveness. This is why government’s efforts have largely focused on these three critical issues as we believed resolving them will undoubtedly offset the challenges within the sector, he said.
The Minister used the opportunity to assure the Bank of Federal Government’s commitment to make effective use of all available resources, while requesting for assistance in the funding of the pilot programme designed to support the development of mini-grid and solar homes systems for the country’s critical military formations with a view of providing them with 24/7 electricity supply.
Speaking at the meeting AfDB Nigeria country representative, Ebrima FAAL commended the Minister of Power for the reorganization of the power sector describing the move as highly encouraging. He said the Bank is poised to provide more strategic engagement to address the deficit in the power sector, giving assurance of the Bank’s continuous support to the Federal Government in trying to reach its goals in the power sector.
Etore E. Thomas
DD (PRESS)
