Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo, in a recent meeting with contractors and consultants working on various electricity projects under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP), warned them that the federal government would not accept any delay in the execution of the projects. Sambo, however, reassured the contractors and consultants that there is sufficient money to pay for a job done and emphasised that "we will not accept any excuse of any type from the contractors and consultants."

Sambo, who has been a member of a Presidential Task Force on NIPP established by late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua before his ascension to the vice presidency, is deeply familiar with the projects, so had to speak to the contractors in that tough manner because the administration is obviously dissatisfied with the slow pace of project execution by the contractors.

They are also responding to pressures from the Nigerian electorate who expect the government to deliver on its promise for improved power supply. The tough stance of the government on the eve of an election year is similarly informed by the economic bleeding the country suffers due to inadequate and unreliable power supply. Many investors are wary of putting their money into an economy that requires most manufacturers to generate their own electricity, relying heavily on costly diesel and erratic gas supply. This eats into profit and diminishes productivity.

Indeed, the Nigerian economy has lost many manufacturers to neighbouring Ghana and elsewhere in the world due to the shortage of electricity, which in turn erodes the competitiveness of the Nigerian environment. One of Nigerian dailies, This Day reported in its June 28 edition, that "Coca-Cola Nigeria, last September, relocated the country's only concentrate factory from Ogun State to Switzerland.

They attributed the relocation to high operational costs, which made their products unable to compete effectively at the export market, even in the neighbouring West and Central African countries. Adducing a reason for their departure, the firm said: "The country's manufacturing situation has made the plant's operations unsustainable in the light of today's global economic realities because the company had only been producing for the Nigerian market alone."

The report went on "There are still echoes of many more firms at the verge of departure from the country. The National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), blue chip companies like Paterson Zochonis (PZ) and Unilever have already moved or are in the process of moving their operations out of Nigeria to Ghana. Earlier, Dunlop and Michelin, two tyre manufacturers, had closed their manufacturing plants due to unfavourable business conditions.

The total investment of the firms that have moved to Ghana, according to experts, is over $20bn. Unilever Plc and PZ Cussons Plc have divested to Ghana due to their huge overhead cost arising from poor power supply in Nigeria. Nestle Nigeria Plc, on its own, has moved its research unit and regional head office to Ghana due to huge production cost from power outages, which have eaten deep into its finances.

The loss of industries is not limited to Lagos. The newspaper further reported that, Kano, Nigeria's second industrial and commercial power house, has lost "more than half of the city's 400 industrial establishments, which have been forced to close down due to high cost of production" caused by inadequate electricity supply. The author lamented: "With these closures, some half a million workers have been retrenched. The Kano example is replicated all over the country and has compounded the already tenuous security and unemployment situation in the country."

The government has not sat idle as clearly stated in the early paragraphs of this piece. It is certain that from the outset of democracy in 1999, the elected politicians have struggled, with doses of seriousness and genuine commitment, to raise power output from a dismal 3,400mw to 10,000mw for the world's largest black nation of 150 million people. The government actually rehabilitated many of the country's broken down power-generation turbines between 1999 and 2007, consequently pushing electricity output close to 4,000mw from a low 1,300mw.

When President Obasanjo assumed office, his government discovered that a large number of the 79 power-generation turbines, which have a combined theoretical capacity to generate 5,200mw were down. The government later conceived and started implementing a power sector reform programme in which the private sector is allowed to engage in commercial generation of electricity, started the NIPP, extended and strengthened the transmission and distribution lines, in the process hooking Makurdi, the capital of Benue State, to the national electricity grid.

Following the reform, over 30 private Independent Power Providers (IPPs) were licensed to generate electricity. The issues of supplying gas to power the generating plants and transmission lines to evacuate the power generated by the IPPs are currently being addressed. For instance, the old-fashioned radial analogue transmission system dating back to the early 1960s was designed to wheel a maximum of 4,000mw of electricity. That is why it is being upgraded by some of the contractors and consultants the vice president met and warned to redouble efforts so that electricity consumers can have more of it delivered to them.

"The Presidential Action Committee, chaired by the president, will provide leadership and guidance for the development of the power sector, and determine the general policy direction and strategic focus of the ongoing power reform.

This committee has vice president Sambo as alternate chairman, and its other members include the minister of state for power, the ministers of finance, national planning and petroleum pesources, the secretary to the government of the federation, the head of service, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, a special adviser on power, and chief of staff to the president," a State House statement explained.

Given the seriousness with which the government is tackling the challenge posed by the electricity sector in Nigeria, including the recent approval for the construction of Zungeru Hydro-Power plant, the availability of sufficient gas to fire gas turbines continuously, and the fact that funding for the electricity projects is not a hindrance as testified by the vice president in his meeting with the contractors and consultants working on the projects, there is room for optimism that the efforts will yield the desired results, especially with the assessment which shows that 85 per cent completion of each of the projects has been achieved.

Dambatta is information officer in the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation