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Nigeria: Yar'Adua Orders Release of N59 Billion for Power
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Vanguard (Lagos)
25 July 2008
Posted to the web 25 July 2008
Inalegwu Shaibu
PRESIDENT Umaru Yar'Adua has ordered the immediate release of N59 billion being part of the N115 billion 2008 budget for the Ministry of Energy to enable it address the epileptic power supply in the country.
Briefing the Senate Committee on Power and Steel yesterday in Abuja, Minister of State for Energy, Mrs Fatimah Ibrahim, said: "The President has directed Finance Ministry to immediately release the balance of 2008 appropriation to the ministry before the end of the month."
Mrs. Ibrahim who said the release of the fund was meant to enable the ministry carry out the president's directive on raising power generation from 2,500 mega watts to 5,600 megawatts over the next 18 months explained that the President had initiated a budget to support the intended declaration of emergency in the power sector.
Also yesterday, the committee was informed by Engineer Bello Suleiman, Executive Vice Chairman of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), that power generation in the country had dropped from 3,000 mega watts to 2,500 mega watts.
This was in spite of the disclosure that about N33. 5 billion was appropriated to PHCN in the 2008 budget to boost power generation and supply across the country.
Engineer Suleiman attributed the poor power generation to low water supply in the hydro power plants and disruptions in gas supply to thermal stations.
Besides, he said PHCN planned to increase power generation to 5,600, but the frequent vandalisation of PHCN equipment and poor funding from government had made it impossible for them to meet the new target set by the President.
He said: "Most of the constraints we face in the execution of projects come from budgetary provision. Sometimes the money we get is usually not enough for projects to be completed.
"Another major constraint is the level of water supply in the hydro power plants. The thermal gas stations that were supposed to provide cover by supplying water to the hydro plant are not working in perfect conditions.
These stations run on gas and there has been frequent disruption in the supply to the station. If the water level improves, we can generate at least by 400 megawatts," he said.
Minister of State for Energy (Power), Mrs. Ibrahim, in her presentation before the committee informed the Senators that her ministry had so far received N56.17 billion from the 2008 appropriation which had been effectively distributed to all the agencies in the ministry.
Before giving a breakdown of the 2008 budgetary allocation to the power sector, she told the committee that President Yar'Adua had initiated a budget to support the intended declaration of emergency in the power sector.
She also said the ministry had taken a giant step to address the epileptic power supply by proposing to build mobile turbines with the capacity to generate 20 megawatts in 10 designated remote parts of the country.
The breakdown of the money released so far is as follows: N6.8 billion has been released to the ministry, PHCN got N33.2 billion; N13.3 billion to Rural Electrification Project, and N854 million was released to the National Energy Regulatory commission.
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She further explained that Nigerian Energy Commission got N997 million, the National Integrated Power Project got N1.5 billion while N50 million was earmarked to the Mambilla project.
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