Nigeria should be doing about 50, 000MW of electricity daily if the country desires improved power sector that can impact the economy, Mr Kola Adesina, Chairman of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, has said.
Adesina spoke in Lagos at a forum where he lamented that the 5,700MW current power generation for 200million Nigerians was shameful.
“Nigeria is doing about 5, 700MW. That is very shameful if you ask me, for almost 200 million people. We on our part should ensure that the framework to deliver that power is available and ultimately for the consumer to pay the right price,’’ he added.
He welcomed the current increase in electricity tariff in the country, saying the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry was heading towards corrective pricing which would provide incentive for investments in the country.
“As we speak today, we made our own investment based on patriotism, based on nationalism, based on the fact that we are Nigerians, based on the fact that we believe that we had the capacity to bringing energy to life in Africa.
“The commercial principle of the sector needs to change and government has realised that the resources available to the state cannot meet all its expenses.
“Some of these commodities need to be economically priced. Pricing electricity economically is a commonsensical thing that any administration will naturally want to support.
He maintained that significant progress had been made since the private sector took over the ownership of the successive companies of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria in 2013.
He disclosed that there was a lot of ground yet to be covered in the power sector.
He said: “The kind of improvement we have made is not one we are happy about. It is not what we want to celebrate, but we have made significant improvement. We were doing about 3, 000MW in 2013, but today we are doing about 5, 700MW averagely. A lot of generating and distribution aspects were way behind, but now we are moving forward but we are not moving as fast as we should’’.
He also said Ikeja Electric’s has taken giant strides in the power sector, saying the power firm has signed N11.4billion contract as part of measures to accelerate metering of customers.
He added that the company had invested $44 million in advanced metering infrastructure to increase technology and innovation into its business operations.
